Sheffield Steelers maintain Elite League record of bouncing back at first time of asking

It has only happened five more times since, a major factor behind why they enter a new week 11 points clear at the top of the regular season standings with just 12 games remaining.

Their latest setback came on home ice on Saturday night - four of their six losses have come there - when they went down 5-3 to Manchester Storm.

As they have on every other occasion they have lost this season, they responded in the best way possible, heading north of the border to take on Dundee Stars and returning home with a 5-1 win.

At an early stage in the campaign, defenceman Kevin Tansey said the players vowed to try and avoid suffering back-to-back defeats. So far, so good.

Tansey has tasted success previously in his career, winning a 2017-18 Central Division title with Toledo Walleye in the ECHL.

The following year, the team went one better and won the Western Conference crown before losing out in the Kelly Cup Final to the Newfoundland Growlers.

Like all newcomers to the Steelers’ line-up this season, the 31-year-old Ontario-born D-man is aware that the UK is unique in the regular season crown being the most coveted honour for teams.

He sees similarities between the current Steelers’ roster and the one from his time in Ohio between 2017-19.

“Guys here aren’t satisfied,” said Tansey. “We’ve had 10, 12, 14-game winning streaks and then we lose one game and guys are immediately hungry again.

“One thing we said this year was that we don’t want to lose two games in a row and we’ve done a good job of that because every time we’ve lost a game, we’ve come back even harder.

“It’s obviously pretty inconceivable to go undefeated in a 54-game schedule. We knew we were going to lose some games, obviously, we just wanted to make sure that when we did that we responded in a tough way, in a mentally tough way and a physically tough way whenever we did eat those losses.

“That’s really the sign of a championship team and is very similar to when I was in Toledo.

“You never like losing, but it’s grounding and it brings you back down to earth and humbles you a little bit and makes you realise that you have to show up every single game, especially in this league where the league is the priority.

“There’s a relentless nature to it here.”

Stinging from the reverse to Manchester, the Steelers - missing forwards Robert Dowd, Marc-Olivier Vallerand and Scott Allen - got out in front early in Dundee when Mitchell Balmas struck in the fifth minute.

By the time the hosts got on the board just after the halfway point through Craig Garrigan the Steelers were already 2-0 ahead through Mikko Juusola’s 26th-minute strike.

The game was effectively over by the end of the middle period through a second for Balmas - a 34th-minute penalty shot - and a Cole Shudra strike which made it 4-1 at 38.36.

Josh Nicholls made it 5-1 in the 46th minute, to leave head coach Aaron Fox pleased with his side’s response.

“We needed to bounce back from the previous night which wasn’t our best,” said Fox. “But this is never an easy place to come and so I was just happy we got the job done.

“From puck drop, I felt like we were ready and committed to win. We are short-benched pretty heavy right now as well with some key guys out and other guys stepped up which was good to see.”