Steelers give themselves triple boost as play-offs draw close

With the defence of their Elite League title long gone in what has been a disappointing season, Dave Matsos's side will be determined to salvage some pride by lifting the play-off crown for a third successive year.

The best finish they can realistically hope for in the regular season will be fifth place, a position which will pit them against Cardiff Devils, the team most likely to finish fourth.

Steelers still have to overhaul Edinburgh Capitals in order to finish fifth but three straight wins over the weekend – last night's emphatic 6-2 victory at home to Hull Stingrays following a double success against Newcastle Vipers – will have given them a timely confidence boost with just seven games of the regular season remaining.

Last night at Sheffield Arena, Mike Sgroi gave Steelers an early lead on the powerplay before the prolific Konstantin Kalmikov levelled for Hull.

The Ukrainian then doubled his tally on a delayed penalty four minutes into the second period before Steelers hit back with venom scoring three unanswered goals through Jason Hewitt, Scott Basiuk and Doug Sheppard to take a 4-2 lead into the third.

As Stingrays pushed for a way back into the game, Jeff Legue and Matt Hubbauer found the net to ensure a comfortable evening for the defending Elite League champions.

After seeing off Newcastle 6-3 at the Arena on Friday night, Steelers continued the good work at Whitley Bay on Saturday when Hubbauer (2), Legue and defenceman Jonathan Zion were on target to secure a deserved

4-2 victory.

For Hull Stingrays, Sunday's defeat was a big comedown after their heroics of Saturday night when they finally found a way to beat player-coach Sylvain cloutier's former club Coventry Blaze at the eighth time of asking.

Kalmikov struck in the 29th minute to cancel out Luke Fulghum's 14th-minute opener, before Lee Mitchell clinched the game-winning goal on a breakaway at 43.32.

""It certainly wasn't a 6-2 game at Sheffield," said Cloutier last night. "But we have picked up two points this weekend and we want to be picking up points every weekend now to build up some momentum going into the play-offs."