Sheffield Steelers stay in touch with leaders after bouncing back to defeat Fife Flyers

The relatively comfortable victory in a first meeting of the season with the Scottish club helped soothe the hurt felt by a Saturday night loss at Coventry Blaze.

Jeff Legue returned to the starting line-up for Steelers at Sheffield Arena after being a healthy scratch at Coventry and the deadlock was broken against the Flyers by defenceman Jace Coyle, who fired home past David Brown at 10.56 for his fourth of the season.

The lead was doubled early in the second period when Tyler Mosienko registered his 13th of the campaign before, at 33.06, recent arrival Guillaume Desbiens scored his second in Steelers’ colours, this time a short-handed effort.

Fife bounced back almost immediately though when, with Steelers’ defenceman Rod Sarich still in the penalty box on a cross-checking call, Shayne Stockton found a way past Marek Pinc at 33.59.

That was as close as Fife got, however, with the hosts holding out for a welcome two points, enough to move them up to third in the overall standings, level on points with Belfast Giants, but above them by virtue of having won more games in regulation.

On Saturday, Steelers did everything at Coventry but score - out-shooting their hosts a remarkable 48-16 but coming home on the back of a 2-0 defeat to hand their opponents a first victory over them in four meetings this season.

The deadlock wasn’t broken until the third minute of the final period when Russ Cowley found a way past Pinc.

The points were sealed 55.46 when a combination of former Steelers’ James Jorgensen and Ashley Tait set up Brett Robinson.

After returning home from his former club with nothing on Saturday, Steelers coach Paul Thompson acknowledged how important it was for his team to take something from the weekend.

“It’s about the result really,” said Thompson.

“We played a lot better in Coventry on Saturday and came away with nothing.

“You could see before Saturday’s games, Cardiff were on a four-game losing streak, Nottingham were on a three-game losing streak - it’s not easy to win in this league - them days are long,long, long gone.

“Even though we’re not losing consistently, we need to start putting a run in and in Coventry would have been a great opportunity, but it didn’t happen.

“So we need to put that run together, but this is not the same league as it was last year or the previous year or a few years ago.

In the English Premier League, Sheffield Steeldogs hauled themselves up the table thanks to two wins over Bracknell Bees, following up Saturday night’s 7-3 triumph with a 5-2 victory in Berkshire last night.

Bottom club Hull Pirates put up a solid fight at home against leaders Milton Keynes Lightning but two goals in as many first period minutes gave them a big hill to climb.

New signing Nathan Salem halved the deficit on the powerplay at 26.50, but a 51st-minute strike from Michael Farn ensured two points for the visitors.