Sheffield Steelers turn up heat on Elite League leaders Belfast Giants with thumping win over Glasgow Clan

While the Steelers were racing to their biggest win of the 2024-25 campaign to move back above Nottingham Panthers and into second place – led by a four-goal haul from Daniel Leavens – the Giants were dropping a point in a 4-3 shootout defeat at Cardiff Devils.

The Steelers complete their weekend with a visit from Manchester Storm tonight – Nottingham, a point back, visit Glasgow – while the Giants must wait until Sunday for their return to the ice when they host Guildford Flames.

The Steelers got off to the perfect start when Mikko Juusola put them ahead with just 13 seconds gone, Leavens then scoring twice before the visitors rammed home their superiority with a five-goal second period.

Marc-Olivier Vallerand made it 4-0 at 26.07 before the Clan’s troubles worsened when conceding two power play goals, the first from Mitchell Balmas at 30.05, the second being Leavens’ hat-trick strike just over four minutes later.

The Clan finally got on the board through Mitchell Heard at 35.29 but that was wiped out by a second for Balmas 28 seconds later, Patrick Watling increasing the agony for the home team when making it 8-1 in the 38th minute.

Leavens chalked up his fourth of the night just over two minutes into the third and Watling doubled his tally just under five minutes later, before Robert Lachowicz grabbed a consolation effort for the home team.

Fox acknowledged it was just “one of those nights” where everything went his team’s way.

“We executed very well, we were clinical in our chances, we took every opportunity that we got and we never really slowed down tonight, so fortunate with that result, everyone in our group played well – it was just one of those nights for us,” said Fox.

“We’ve been in one of those situations a few weeks ago where we lost a 6-0 game at home (to Coventry) – it’s not that Glasgow is a bad hockey team, I just think some nights don’t go your way and tonight was our night.”

Clan coach was brutally honest in his assessment of the game afterwards, adding: “Yeah heartbreaking. We were poor, I was poor, the players were poor. For stretches of the game we had good energy, good life but our execution, our decision-making was horrendous – we sucked.”