Sheffield Steelers forward duo praised for setting tone for others to follow in Elite League win at Guildford Flames

Having been handed a full week between games, Sheffield Steelers’ coach Aaron Fox, inset, was hoping his players would benefit during their road trip to Elite League rivals Guildford Flames, particularly after the team had been hit by a sickness bug, one which kept defenceman Niklas Nevalainen sidelined.

By contrast, Guildford were playing their third game in five days, effectively running out of steam in the third period at The Spectrum on Sunday, while the Steelers eased to a 6-2 win which keeps them two points clear from the Cardiff Devils at the top of the standings.

“It was the only game we had this week,” said Fox. “But we knew that they had played Wednesday and Saturday and we thought we could take advantage of that a little bit tonight

“We got off to a really good start to go 2-0 up but then we let them back into the game in the last five minutes of the second which was a little disappointing.

“But I loved our pushback in the third there and thought we did a really lot of good things.

“I thought that Brandon Whistle and Mark Simpson were absolutely leading the charge for us.

"They both bought energy every single shift and every time they were out there we had something to build off, the rest of the guys fed off them.

“It was a real character win.

"The sickness bug had gone through the room which is why Niklas wasn’t playing, several of the other guys weren’t close to 100 per cent, either, but they gave us everything they had.”

Up until the 40-minute mark, it had proved an even game – literally – the Flames recovering from conceding goals by Steelers’ Robert Dowd and Patrick Watling with strikes from Ryan Tait and Steven McParland late in the second period.

But having seen their two-goal lead so quickly wiped out – Watling’s strike after Dowd’s 20th-minute opener only coming 38 seconds before Tait’s reply – the Steelers emerged for the third period clearly bristling.

Much to head coach Fox’s delight, they showed once again why they are currently the team to catch in the regular season standings with four goals in just over 10 minutes.

Mikko Juusola got the ball rolling at 45.29 when he reacted quickest to a rebound from a Cole Shudra effort before the impressive Simpson made it 4-2 just over a minute later following good work behind the net by his Finnish team-mate set him up just in front.

Kevin Tansey’s power play strike at 55.40 – when he was left all alone in front of the net – dealt a further blow to the hosts’ hopes before Scott Allen showed neat skill to clip the puck into the roof of the net from close range just 14 seconds later, sealing their second win of the season in Surrey having won 3-1 there in late September.

The Steelers are next in action on Wednesday night when they take on Manchester Storm in their final game of the group stage in the Challenge Cup (face-off 7.30pm).