Steelers cut the gap on league leaders Panthers

The result takes third-placed Steelers to within five points of the Panthers, with two games still to come between the two at the National Ice Centre, the first being on Friday, February 22.

The Steelers remain three points behind second-placed Belfast Giants, who followed up Saturday’s 5-4 home win over Hull Stingrays with a 4-3 win on a shoot-out at Cardiff Devils last night. There are also two more games to come for Ryan Finnerty’s team against their Northern Ireland rivals.

Jeff Legue gave Steelers a 2-0 lead against the Panthers, his second at 15.31 heralding a mad 76-second spell which brought three more goals. Brandon Benedict made it 2-1, only for Ashley Tait to restore the two-goal lead at 16.40 before David Clarke made it a one-goal game again 17 seconds later.

That was how it stayed until the dying moments, the Steelers impressively resisting the Panthers’ offensive threat before scoring two more goals through Scott Champagne and the impressive Steven Goertzen.

His last-minute empty-net strike made it four for the weekend after his hat-trick had seen the Steelers edge out Braehead Clan 5-4 on Saturday night.

“We’ve closed the gap to five and we play them twice more,” said Steelers’ head coach Finnerty.

“We’ve both got tough schedules, it puts a little bit of pressure on them.

“We’re in a tough spot. We know we need to win out probably and we need a little bit of luck, but a lot can happen in the last 14 games. This win gives us a little bit of momentum.”

At the other end of the table, it was a bad weekend for bottom club Hull losing both their games while their rivals all picked up a win apiece.

It leaves the East Yorkshire club six points adrift of the eighth and final play-off spot.

While Stingrays had pushed Belfast all the way on Saturday night – their goals coming from Kurtis Dulle (2), Dmitry Rodin and Tom Squires in a 5-4 defeat – life was made far easier for visitors Coventry Blaze in Hull last night, Paul Thompson’s team heading home 7-2 winners.

Matty Davies had opened the scoring in the fourth minute for the home side, but his second of the night at 54.26 only came after Blaze had taken control of the game and fired in seven goals of their own.