Sheffield Steelers 0 Cardiff Devils 5: Challenge Cup defence over as Steelers crash out on home ice

The Steelers had beaten the Devils in South Wales two years ago to get their hands on the trophy or the first time in 17 years, winning a thrilling final 4-3.

But on this occasion - three days after losing 3-2 at home on a shootout to the Devils in the league - the Steelers were very much second best, the game effectively over after 40 minutes in which the visitors had plundered all their goals.

Cardiff will now go forward to face Belfast Giants, who edged out Nottingham Panthers 2-1 in the other semi-final at the SSE Arena.

The Steelers’ problems began in the 15th minute when Brodie Reid pounced on a mistake by Justoin Hodgman on the blue line to put the Devils ahead, the lead doubling just over four minutes later at 18.39 when Josh Batch fired past Rok Stojanovic.

Hopes of the Steelers finding a way back into the game took a further knock when Trevor Cox struck at 26.45 and only 61 seconds more had elapsed before the Devils made it 4-0, finding themselves on a 2-on-0 from which Reid grabbed his second off a feed from Justin Crandall.

Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox called a timeout and replaced Stojanovič in net with Barry Brust, but things got no better, his players failing to clear the puck from behind their own net which allowed Sam Duggan to feed Josh Waller in front to make it 5-0 at 32.02.

Sheffield created more scoring opportunities in the third, but couldn’t find a way past Mac Carruth, who ended the game with a 24-shot shutout.

“That was a disappointing one, this is one of those trophies you set your sights on but tonight we just weren’t good enough,” Fox told Premier Sports. “Individual mistakes at our blue line cost us three of those goals, turnovers in the neutral zone - we basically made five individual mistakes that all ended up in the back of our net.

“Other than that, I think we gave up 20 shots tonight and probably 8-10 of them were 2-on-0 or 2-on-1 so we didn’t leave Rok very much help back there.

“We’ll put this one behind us. I don’t want this to be a game that is the start of something that sends us the wrong way.

“I think after the second period we were embarrassed with how that first 40 minutes went. We had some push back in the third but there’s really no silver lining there, tonight just wasn’t good enough.”

Sheffield can now turn their attention to maintaining their lead at the top of the Elite League regular season standings when they take on arch-rivals Nottingham on Saturday at the National Ice Centre before welcoming Coventry Blaze to the Utilita Arena on Sunday.

In the other semi-final, the Giants went ahead through David Goodwin at 17.14, with Panthers’ Jeremy Welsh equalising Goodwin struck again at 38.29.