Sheffield Steelers target maximum haul to leave Elite League title rivals Belfast Giants in their trail

On that occasion, the heartbreak for Steelers came on home ice, the Giants gaining an initial advantage with a 3-1 win on the Saturday before inflicting the killer blow in a 2-1 shootout win the following night.

It left them five points clear with two games remaining, Adam Keefe’s team adding insult to injury when they beat the Steelers 5-4 in overtime on home ice a few days later.

The Steelers’ misery was completed for the season just over a week later when they then went out in the first round of the play-offs at the hands of Dundee Stars, seeing them end their campaign with six straight losses.

It was a painful end to a season that had promised so much and only fuelled the desire of those players returning for 2022-23 to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

This time around, the two title hopefuls meet at the Odyssey Arena in back-to-back games, another crucial difference being that if one side or the other loses both, there is a lot more time remaining in the regular season to make up the points difference.

As it stands, the Steelers hold the advantage over the Giants going into tonight’s first game, sitting three points clear in second place, trailing leaders Guildford Flames by the same margin.

In such scenarios, a split weekend is never a bad thing but, as far as Steelers’ Brandon Whistle is concerned, the visitors are gunning for a clean sweep in Northern Ireland.

“It is always a big weekend over in Belfast, it’s huge for us, especially at this time of the year,” said Whistle, who earlier this week got his first call-up to the Great Britain squad for next month’s Euro Challenge tournament.

“There are four teams now within five or six points of each other and if we can go in there and win both games it’s almost like an eight-point swing and would push Belfast away from us a bit.

“It’s never easy over there and lots of times you’ll be happy with the split. But, right now, we need to win both.”

Steelers go into the double-header having travelled across from Fife, where they were edged out 3-2 in Wednesday night’s first leg of the Challenge Cup semi-final.

Belfast booked their place in the final despite losing 3-2 on home ice to Guildford, the hard work already having been done in Surrey when they won 4-0 in the first leg two weeks’ earlier.

The Steelers have to wait until February 15 before they can conclude their tie with the Flyers on home ice.

Having the extended time away together as a group is rare in British hockey, but a decision that is welcomed by Whistle.

“The team bonding is always good fun,” he added. “You don’t get to do it much in this league compared to others because you are mostly on day trips, you go to games there and back in the one day.

“But we got to do it once last year when we went to Belfast again and it was a good time for us all.”