VIDEO - Sheffield Steelers 5 Edinburgh Capitals 2: Markus Nilsson takes centre stage to help Steelers sink Capitals

Having been lifted by Nottingham Panthers’ 7-4 win over leaders Cardiff Devils on Tuesday, third-placed Steelers couldn’t afford to waste an opportunity to close the gap at Ice Sheffield 24 hours later.

And they convincingly completed their objective, coming up against a lacklustre Ecinburgh team possibly still feeling the after-effects of the previous night’s 4-1 loss at Coventry Blaze a result which, together with the loss to the Steelers, could prove a potentially fatal blow to their chances of making the play-offs.

As for the Steelers, by extending their winning streak to five games in all competitions, they leapfrogged Belfast Giants to return to second in the overall standings for the first time since the middle of December.

Paul Thompson’s team have yet to taste what it feels like to sit at the top of the tree this season, a repeat of last year when they only went top of the league standings in the last three weeks of the season, pipping Cardiff to the crown for a second year running.

It remains to be seen whether history can repeat itself, but the Steelers now trail the Devils by just six points. There are nine games remaining in the regular season, two of which bring the leading pair together in South Yorkshire on Sunday, March 12 and Saturday, March 18.

These are interesting times, particularly when you consider that third-placed Belfast - a point behind the Steelers - also have to play Cardiff twice, as well as hosting Thompson’s team the night before the Devils’ second visit to Sheffield Arena.

On a night which saw them without Andreas Valdix and Mike Ratchuk and Colton Fretter only playing a bit-part role in the first period, the Steelers found it difficult to break down a stubborn Edinburgh outfit in front of a small crowd.

After agreeing to come out of retirement and helping out behind the bench for two games at the weekend, veteran defenceman Rod Sarich took to the ice for the first time since September last year.

It was difficult to tell that Sarich had been out of action for so long, his seemingly effortless game picking up where he had left off.

The deadlock was broken in the 16th minute when man-of-the-match Markus Nilsson broke free down the right-hand side and unleashed a fierce shot past Travis Fullerton.

Only 32 seconds of the second period had elapsed when Nilsson struck again, this time forcing the puck home from close range.

Pretty soon it was 3-0, when John Armstrong’s attempt to find Levi Nelson in front of goal cannoned off Fullerton and into the net. The night got even more comfortable for the hosts when Robert Dowd struck with 83 seconds of the period remaining.

Ervins Mustukovs’s hopes of a third shutout in the space of just over a week ended when, with Liam Kirk in the penalty box on a tripping call, Ian Schultz whacked a mid-air puck past the Steelers goalie from in front of the net.

Dowd quickly restored the four-goal lead at 55.55 before Edinburgh grabbed a second through Garrett Milan with 17 just seconds remaining.

“These are the banana skin games where you can slip up if you’re not mentally ready for them,” said Thompson afterwards.

“We had Ratchuk and Valdix out of the line-up mand Fretter maybe played three or four shifts before he went off.

“You’re always a little bit concerned but Roddy came in for us and did a good job, blew some of the cobewebs and rust off and he managed the puck well and got us going forward nice and quickly.

“And I was really pleased for Markus Nilsson, who does a lot of work that often goes unnoticed but he got a couple of goals and the man of the match award and Dowdy and Levi have been on fire recently so, all in all, it was a really pleasing performance.”