Derby win seals double and ensures Panthers remain wary

The Steelers bounced back from a New Year’s Day defeat at Coventry Blaze with two away wins, following up Saturday night’s 4-1 win at second-placed Belfast Giants with a hard-fought 3-1 win at bottom-club Hull Stingrays last night.

Nottingham also enjoyed a maximum return over the weekend, beating Coventry Blaze in successive games to maintain their nine-point advantage over their fierce rivals, who remain in third place with one game in hand.

Neither win came easy for the Steelers, but their workmanlike approach paid dividends on both occasions, much to the delight of Finnerty.

“We played well on both nights and got what we deserved – I think we probably played better in Hull than in Belfast and we had to,” said Finnerty.

“Any time you take points out of Belfast you’ve got to be happy and, make no mistake, Hull are a good hockey club. They’ve come on tonnes and where they are in the standings isn’t indicative of how good they are.

“But there’s still a lot of hockey to be played and for anybody to be counted out at this stage is ridiculous – a lot can happen. Nobody wins the league in January.”

A tight, yet feisty first period in Hull produced few chances, Steelers only going in ahead thanks to Tylor Michel’s powerplay strike at 17.18. There was still little to choose between the two sides in the second, until Steelers doubled their lead through Shawn Limpright’s tip-in from Mark Thomas’s shot in the 29th minute.

The points were sealed when Jonathan Phillips forced home the puck off goaltender Ben Bowns’s pads from behind the net at 46.42. But Finnerty admitted afterwards that his team were hanging on at the end, particularly once Jereme Tendler struck on the powerplay for Hull to make it 3-1 at 53.49, his 27th of the season.

Steelers’ weekend got off to a perfect start when they outplayed Belfast at the Odyssey Arena. After a goalless first period the visitors hit two in the second, first through Steven Goertzen at 27.37 and then Jeff Legue at 38.25.

Steelers added a third through Ashley Tait at 44.37. Daymen Rycroft replied for the hosts but Simon Ferguson sealed it at 59.45.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Stingrays, after they picked up two valuable points at Cardiff Devils on Saturday.

Tendler again delivered – twice – as Hull came from 2-0 down to seal a second victory of the season in South Wales. Cardiff went ahead through Ben Davies and Mac Faulkner. But a tip-in from player-coach Sylvain Cloutier came in-between the Tendler strikes.