Horror show for Steel City side: Cardiff Devils 7-1 Sheffield Steelers (final score)

They were overwhelmed 7-1 at champions Cardiff Devils, the team that beat them 6-2 in Sheffield last month.

It was the club's biggest defeat of the campaign and further proof of the gulf that exists between the clubs.

The game was just 16 seconds old when Steelers conceded.

Matt Pope stunned Sheffield with an opener.

If that was a nasty surprise, worse was to follow. With the clock showing one minute and four seconds, Stephen Dixon made it 2-0.

And by 6:49 it was 3-0 to the Welsh, Charles Linglet converting.

That looked like being game over with the game not yet seven minutes old.

Sheffield coach Tom Barrasso, a goalie by trade and intuition, had seen enough.

Brad Day was called on to replace Jackson Whistle in goal.

Sheffield were then faced by a 5-3 penalty kill, and as it ended Devils ran up the scoreboard to 4-0 Gleason Fournier scoring at 10:38.

It was nothing short of a horror period for Barrasso's men, without Chris Lawrence, Evan McGrath, and Brandon Whistle.

Steelers switched into pure survival mode to kill a 5-3 power play in the second session.

But they conceded even-handed for 0-5, courtesy of Linglet's second goal and a third point at 27:11

Robert Dowd and Tanner Eberle tried to get their side back into the game, but without success.

Eventually, though, they got on the scoreboard, Stefan Della Rovere scoring his second in three games.

It was a meaningless reply - Devils hit their sixth on the Power Play, from Layne Ulmer, at 45;54.

And it was 7-1 at 53.23 with another for Fournier.

A Blood Vs Della Rovere scrap at the end was a distraction at the end - but the honours that mattered went to the champions.