Steelers’ joy proves short-lived as Panthers roar back in style

For the defending champions were able to exact swift revenge on their South Yorkshire rivals once back on home ice, a stunning 6-1 triumph cancelling out any advantage Doug Christiansen’s side may have gained on them 24 hours earlier.

Both sides had gone into the weekend struggling for the kind of consistency required to lift the Elite League championship.

At one stage, it looked as though Steelers would take something out of the second meeting at the National Ice Centre, tied 1-1 going into the third after Rob Sirianni’s 33rd-minute powerplay marker had cancelled out Matt Francis’s 10th short-handed opener for the home side.

But the Panthers found their range in the third period and, with just under 10 minutes to go were 5-1 ahead through strikes from Matt Ryan, Leigh Salters, Chris Murray and a second for Francis – the first two on the powerplay.

Francis rounded off the rout by sealing his hat-trick with a third powerplay goal for the home side at 55.35.

On Saturday, it was another tight game going into the third, with Jonathan Weaver’s 43rd-minute strike for Panthers closing the deficit to 4-3.

It wasn’t, however, until Jeff Legue sealed both points for Steelers with an empty netter in the final minute that the home side breathed more easily – his 14th goal of the season adding to earlier strikes from himself, Chad Langlais (2) and Jonathan Phillips.

Hull Stingrays also enjoyed a mixed weekend, returning home from Braehead Clan with a 3-2 victory only to be beaten 5-2 on home ice by Coventry Blaze.

Carl Lauzon, Jereme Tendler and player-coach Sylvain Cloutier scored the goals that earned two welcome points in Glasgow for Hull – their third successive road win in the Gardiner Conference.

But they found themselves 4-0 down at the end of the second period against Coventry last night and, although they pulled the deficit back to two goals through strikes from Lauzon and Guillaume Doucet, it wasn’t enough, with Ryan Ginand’s empty netter confirming Coventry’s win.

Cloutier said: “For the first two periods we did not play the way we can. We got out-worked, we were not battling and you can’t do that.

“We were the better team in the third period but it was a missed chance to get four points this weekend and to take advantage of them missing some key guys.

“We need to play as a group and out-work teams, like we did in Braehead on Saturday night, but we did not have it against Coventry.

“It is disappointing, but we just move on.”