VIDEO: Adams confident of Steelers’ scoring touch as Blaze lie in wait

Already assured of second place in the standings and the third seeding in the post-season, Adams watched his team end their regular season campaign with a 4-2 defeat at Hull Stingrays, a result which saw Sylvain Cloutier’s team snatch a play-off spot at the expense of Adams’s former team Cardiff Devils.

The Welsh side’s 1-0 overtime defeat at Coventry Blaze left the door open for Hull and Fife Flyers who, with a staggering run of 11 wins in their last 14 games also made it into the play-offs.

For Coventry, the result meant a sixth-place finish and a first round meeting with the Steelers, who they knocked out over two legs at the same stage last season.

But Adams, who replaced sacked Doug Christiansen in February, has seen enough from his new charges to believe they have it in them to gain revenge on the West Midlands outfit and book a place at the final four weekend in Nottingham on April 5-6.

The Steelers peppered Hull’s goal with 44 shots on Sunday night - half of them coming in the third period, with goaltender Ben Bowns making a series of impressive saves, including two at point-blank range.

It was a similar tale on Saturday night against Coventry, when the Steelers outshot the visitors 36-23, although the breakthrough only came in the final few minutes with goals from Dustin Kohn and Max Lacroix.

Given that the league runners-up spot and a third seeding in the play-offs was already assured ahead of their trip to East Yorkshire, the Steelers surprised a few people in Hull Arena with their obvious willingness to take the game to the hosts in such a physical manner.

They created plenty of chances throughout ensuring the home crowd could rarely relax - until news of Coventry’s win over Cardiff filtered through - and Adams believes his players need to continue that positive attitude throughout the coming week as they head into the first leg of their play-off encounter in Coventry on Saturday night.

“I was really happy with the way we played in Hull,” said Adams. “I think we did it right; there were lots of offensive chances that came our way and we performed very well all over the ice – it was exactly what I wanted out of the team.

“Unfortunately, the result wasn’t there but the result didn’t really matter for us - it was all about the performance and that I was really happy with.”

Adams feels recent meetings with Coventry will help with his preparations ahead of the weekend as his team bid to reach the final four weekend for the first time since 2011.

“I’m excited to play Coventry,” he added. “The travel is really good for us and it’s a team we just recently played, so we’re familiar with them and I think it’s a team we match-up well against.

“They are probably eager to play us too so there should be some good hockey played over both games.

“I think we’re due to explode with a number of goals. We’re creating a high number of chances every game so I think if guys can just kind of keep the positive attitude all week, I think we’re going to explode with a lot of goals next week.”

While pleased with his own team’s efforts despite the second defeat in Hull in the space of two weeks, Adams was also quick to praise Sunday night’s hosts.

“I thought Hull played well and they took advantage of a few of our mistakes,” he said. “They got into the play-offs, so credit to Sylvain Cloutier and Bobby McEwan for what they’ve done - I’m happy for those guys.”