Plenty of promise from Steelers as Simon oversees perfect start

Steelers followed up Saturday night's 5-1 defeat of the much-fancied Cardiff Devils in front of a passionate 3,000-plus crowd at Sheffield Arena with a 6-0 road win over league newcomers Dundee Stars on Sunday night.

And the South Yorkshire club – who have endured a turbulent summer off the ice – were able to achieve their 100 per cent return with two key players of their roster still to arrive in the UK.

Simon said he expects forwards Rob Globke and Derek Campbell to be in place for next weekend's return match with Dundee in Sheffield once their visa issues have been sorted.

And the rookie coach was quick to praise the efforts of the players he does have at his disposal after they put in two impressive performances.

"We are off to a great start, but we have to remember it is only one weekend," said Simon.

Listen to Ben Simon on HockeyTalk, the new podcast from the Yorkshire Post, by clicking HERE

"When you look down our roster, we are a very skilled team but, in order to compete with the other top teams you have to match that with hard work.

"The guys worked hard all weekend and, once we got the two other guys in - which should be by the time we play again - we will only get stronger."

It was Simon himself who opened the scoring on the powerplay in Dundee, firing Steelers ahead at 3.40.

Joe Talbot again made the most of the man advantage just under six minutes later before Neil Clark and Ashley Tait made it 4-0 before the end of the first period.

A stunned Dundee were able to gather themselves in order to restrict Steelers' free-scoring ways but Jonathan Phillips found a way through to make it 5-0 at 29.44 before Jason Hewitt wrapped up the win at 56.34.

On Saturday, Steelers again got off to the perfect start when Tait opened the scoring against Cardiff at 3.40.

Talbot netted on the powerplay early in the second period before debutant defenceman Jerramie Domish scored a fine solo, shorthanded breakaway goal 10 minutees later. Jeff Legue made it 4-0 early in the third and, despite Scott Maztuk hitting back for the Devils, Robert Dowd made it 5-1.

For more details on Saturday's match go HERE

In Sunday night's other games, Coventry Blaze suffered an early setback in the defence of their league title when Nottingham Panthers thumped them 7-4 at the Skydome Arena.

Belfast Giants - beaten by Nottingham 4-3 after a shoot-out on Saturday night - won 4-3 at Cardiff thanks to Brett Hemingway's 49th-minute winner.