Road triumph quickly forgotten as Steelers fall short back home

Doug Christiansen’s side returned from South Wales on Saturday night after sealing a gritty 4-2 road win over their hosts, only to see those two points cancelled out on home ice less than 24 hours later when the Devils held off a late fightback to win 4-3.

Group B appears to belong to leaders Nottingham Panthers, who sit two points clear of second-place Steelers having played two games less.

Cardiff are now two points behind Steelers, also with two games in hand although, with four teams from five qualifying – rather unnecessarily – it is unlikely Steelers will fail to progress.

Last night at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff’s Mark Richardson scored his third goal in as many games as he put the visitors in front at 8.14.

Mac Faulkner put them two in front at 23.53 on the powerplay, adding another 10 minutes later, again with the man advantage.

Devils added a third goal again on the powerplay from Faulkner at 33.03. With 61 seconds remaining in the period Chris Blight made it 4-0.

But Robert Dowd gave the embattled hosts slight hope at 44.16 and when Gord Baldwin made it 4-2 10 minutes later, it was suddenly game on.

Stefan Meyer’s powerplay strike at 58.34 ensured Cardiff endured some nervous final moments but they held on.

The night before in Cardiff, the Steelers took a 2-0 first-period lead through Jeff Legue and Drew Fata. Robert Dowd then doubled the leaders’ advantage with goals at 27.44 and 29.21.

Richardson and Andrew Lord hit back for Cardiff but that was as close as they got.

Hull Stingrays came back from 2-0 down at home to Belfast Giants in the Elite League last night only to see the game slip from their grasp again late on.

Belfast took the lead through Kevin Saurette’s 16th-minute powerplay strike and doubled their advantage at 25.52 through Dustin Whitecotton.

Jereme Tendler halved the deficit on the powerplay at 42.38, with a short-handed strike from Derek Campbell at 53.16 hauling the home side level.

But, with Kyle Mariani called for interference, Calvin Elfring eventually made the most of the ensuing powerplay to fire a winner for his team at 55.23.

Hull player-coach Sylvain Cloutier believed he had levelled with six seconds remaining only for the referee to rule the puck had not crossed the line.

“I shot the puck and saw it go in before their goaltender pulled it out,” said Cloutier. “That’s the way it goes, though. We battled hard and we need to build on this and find positives.”