Sheffield Steelers earn themselves deserved break after dismantling Glasgow Clan twice in as many nights

Having come home from Scotland in the early hours of Saturday morning brandishing a 5-2 win, the Steelers rammed home their superiority to run out comprehensive 9-3 winners against Jason Morgan’s team on home ice later in the evening.

While Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils spent their weekend fighting it out for what seems pretty likely will be no more than second place - although Guildford Flames will obviously have something to say about that, too - the Steelers were doing what they have done pretty much all season and beating all before them.

“From puck drop we were very, very good,” beamed Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox, who said his players - other than those heading down to Cardiff to hook up with the Great Britain squad for the Olympic Qualifiers - would not be back in until Wednesday morning.

“When you score nine goals coaches are always going to be happy and I just liked the energy we started that game with. We’ve had a lot of hockey here and we wanted to finish this stretch well and we’re going to give the guys a few days to refresh and reload before a huge weekend next week.

“With no Sunday game and a few days off coming up, we felt like the guys were going to give everything they had and leave it all out there.”

The encounter at the Utilita Arena on Saturday was effectively over as a contest by the end of the first period.

Scott Allen struck first with just 43 seconds on the clock when he finished from Kevin Tansey's feed and then doubled his and his team’s tally when he took a pass on the wing and toe-dragged before beating Antti Karjalainen at 4.03.

New signing Patrick Harper showed good skill to register his first goal for the and make it 3-0 at 6.45, prompting Morgan to call a timeout.

But a power play opportunity increased the Scottish team’s agony when Mitchell Balmas made it 4-0 at 11.07.

The second period was only 19 seconds old when another power play effort - this time from Marco-Olivier Vallerand - increased the lead further.

Vallerand made it two for the night just after the halfway mark to see the hosts go in 6-0 ahead at the end of the second intermission.

Ciampini then joined in on the act when netting shorthanded at 41.42 before Darien Craighead finally got Clan on the board under a minute later.

But by the 56th-minute mark, the visitors found themselves 9-1 down thanks to a second from Ciampini and a first for Robert Dowd, late Bryce Reddick and Luke Lynch goals nothing more than a late consolation.