Sheffield Steelers 6, Cardiff Devils 2

Cardiff Devils slipped to defeat at Sheffield Arena, but remain within reach of the Elite League title.

They two wins from their last four fixtures to be certain of the title.

That could become one victory if Sheffield win at second-placed Belfast Giants on Friday evening. Devils could also clinch top spot by beating Giants over the last weekend of the regular season when the rivals clash twice in Cardiff Bay.

The other remaining fixtures for Cardiff are against Sheffield away next Saturday and Fife Flyers at home the following evening.

One worrying factor for Devils was an ankle injury sustained by goalie Ben Bowns which forced him off the ice.

First period:

Defenceman Mark Louis was recalled to the Devils line-up, having missed the 4-1 win against Dundee Stars the previous evening with food poisoning.

Chris Culligan had filled in on D for that game, but he was back on offence at Sheffield with Guillaume Doucet the import to sit out for Cardiff.

Colton Fretter and Yared Hagos were both missing from the Steelers team because of injury.

During a tight, closely contested first period with teams had spells when they were on top. Steelers, though, just had the edge and deserved their one-goal lead at the first period break.

The only goal came after nine minutes 16 seconds when Robert Dowd scored with assists from Levin Nelson and Andreas Valdix.

Steelers almost conceded with 15 minutes gone when Devils pressure resulted in a mad scramble in from of goaltender Ervins Mustukovs.

Devils had possession for 30 seconds around the net and fired in five shots which were either blocked of saved with Steelers players throwing themselves in front of the puck.

End of first: Steelers 1, Devils 0.

Second period

During an exciting 20 minutes Devils twice fought back from behind to draw level, but Steelers were still ahead going into the third.

Devils were rocked when netminder Bowns was forced off with an ankle injury and Thomas Murdy took over. Bowns had a long spell of treatment on the ice and tried to play on before Murdy was sent on.

Andrew Lord made it 1-1 (22-27), while Guillaume Desbiens regained the lead for Steelers with a powerplay goal (29-38).

Devils levelled again on 34-52 when Mark Richardson fired home on the powerplay after a magnificent cross-ice pass from Andrew Hotham.

Sheffield took only 17 seconds to regain a one-goal lead when Nelson scored (35-09).

End of second: Steelers 3, Devils 2.

Third period

The news that Belfast Giants had won 5-2 meant Devils could not win title in this match, but they still needed the two points to put themselves on the brink of being crowned champions.

Murdy remained in goal for the final period, while Bowns had an ice pack on his damaged ankle.

Sheffield scored their fourth goal on a powerplay with Joey Martin in penalty box for high sticks.

Valdix was the scorer at 49-36 and soon after Ben O’Connor added a fifth.

Steelers completed their tally with an empty net goal at 59-09.

Match stats: 

Steelers: Robert Dowd 2+1, Guillaume Desbiens 1+0, Levi Nelson 1+3, Andreas Valdix 1+1, Ben O’Connor 1+0, David Phillips 0+1, John Armstrong 0+1.

Devils: Andrew Lord 1+0, Mark Richardson 1+0, Josh Batch 0+1, Andrew Hotham 0+1.

Period scores (Steelers first): 1-0; 2-2 (3-2); 3-0 (6-2).

Penalties in minutes: Steelers 2+6+6=14; Devils 0+8+8=16.