Sheffield Steelers 2-0 Cardiff Devils latest

Paul Thompson's men had suffered defeats on the four occasions they had played their own Erhardt Conference rivals, three of them at home.

They started against Cardiff Devils tonight, without Andre Deveaux, the new signing who arrived in Sheffield on Friday.

But Mathieu Roy, despite lingering injury problems, started in a new position, on the third line with Tim Wallace and Andreas Jamtin.

Devils started the night six points behind second place Sheffield, but have no fewer than five games in hand, despite the fact its only October.

And they had an early chance on 90 seconds, with Josh Batch firing wide.

Levi Nelson had an effort straight into the goalie Ben Bowns chest as Sheffield dominated most of the ice.

Then they went ahead on the penalty kill, John Armstrong feeding Colton Fretter, from behind the net.

Armstrong had been the first period's best player.

At 18:48 it was the Fretter show again, scoring from Matt Marquardt and Armstrong.