Steelers given fright but title race heads into final weekend

Steelers face a tricky double-header against the always dangerous Braehead Clan as they look to hold off the challenge from Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants.

Last night’s 4-3 win in Whitley Bay leaves them level on points with Cardiff, but ahead in the standings having won more games in regulation.

Belfast are in third, one point behind the top two after recovering from last week’s 4-3 defeat in Sheffield with weekend wins over Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle.

Steelers were leading 4-1 early in the third period before the short-benched Vipers rallied to make life difficult.

The visitors had built a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period with Joey Talbot firing them ahead at 8.12 and, on the powerplay, player-coach Ben Simon made it two at 12.32.

In the second period, Ashley Tait extended the lead to 3-0 at 25.03, although the Vipers pulled one back eight minutes later when their own player-coach Danny Stewart fired home.

Steelers seemed to regain control with Rod Sarich making it 4-1 after only 109 seconds of the third session but when Kyle Sibley scored a second for Vipers at 50.15 it gave the home side renewed hope.

Jaroslaw Rzeszutko pulled Vipers to within one goal at 58.16, but the Steelers held on.

Hul Stingrays made a quick recovery from their 7-2 defeat on home ice to Cardiff on Saturday, coming home from Edinburgh on the back of a comfortable 8-0 victory last night.

Leading scorer Jereme Tendler scored a hat-trick, with Trevor Read, Lee Mitchell, Andy Hirst, Drew Bannister and Konstantin Kalmikov also getting on the scoresheet.

Player-coach Sylvain Cloutier said: “We played pretty well. At times some of the guys got away from the game plan but they soon got back on it and we did what we had to do.”