Sheffield Steelers joint top after superb wins over Cardiff Devils and Fife Flyers

Sheffield hammered Fife Flyers 6-0 on home ice on Sunday after their best result of the season the night before, a 5-2 win at title rivals Cardiff Devils.

They have now won 10 out of 13 games in cup and league combat.

And they have a goaltender in Matt Greenfield, who just love shutting out the opponents.

Fife, in grumpy mood after losing 4-2 at home to Dundee the night before, adopted a physical approach, taking the body whenever they could.

No one looked grumpier than 6ft 3ins Swede Mikael Johansson, who put himself about whenever he was on the ice.

Sheffield were tidy with the puck although Flyers had chances too, Greenfield having to stop Dillon Lawrence after he'd seared through the middle.

But Sheffield took the lead when Brandon McNally went for a cycle tour of Fife's zone before passing to Adam Raska to convert at 11:09.

They doubled their lead with another eye-catching strike, Martin Latal drop-passing to Danny Kristo to backhand high in to the net, his first goal for the club after five starts.

Steelers should have put the game out of sight in the middle frame.

They had no shortage of quality chances, with Robert Dowd, Danny Ciampini, Tomas Pitule and Scott Allen being frustrated by goalie Shane Owen.

Brett Neumann put a shot wide after his blistering pace had put him through.

Sheffield had had twice as many shot as Fife, but hadn't at that stage put the game to bed.

Fife, with ex Steeler Lucas Sandstrom in their colours, even penned Sheffield into their own half in the last segment - but ultimately it wasn't going to help them.

Brandon Whistle gave his team a 3-0 advantage before two short-handed goals in three minutes from Ciampini and Allen.

McNally, who'd suffered a puck in the face minutes earlier tucked away the sixth of the evening.

On Saturday, at Cardiff, both Devils and Steelers provided everything but goals in a fascinating start.

The Welsh took the initiative though at 22:49 through centreman Jake Coughler, from the right circle.

Sheffield then went into penalty kill mode with Brendan Connolly and then Allen sitting out.

Encouraged by their display while short-handed, they went on to equalise at 30:29 through Ciampini's acute-angle drive.

Three minutes later, a defence-splitting pass from Matt Petgrave set Neumann free. He was felled by Josh Batch and potted the penalty shot with some aplomb.

Better still, two goals in 50 seconds arrived for the rampant South Yorkshire side, Ciampini and Adam Raska doing the damage.

That 4-1 goal signalled the end of Ben Bowns' night in the Devils' net, he was replaced by Taran Kozun, for the final 14 minutes.

The 3,100 crowd at Ice Arena Wales saw Devils drag one back through a Coughler deflection at 53:49, on a power play.

But Latal's empty netter insured Sheffield would move up the table.