Belfast Giants 4-2 Sheffield Steelers

They picked up yet another injury - this time to Tanner Eberle.

But there is good news around the corner with Aaron Johnson and James Bettauer likely to be back from long term issues next weekend.

The League leaders, with five wins and a draw from their last six away trips, had Ben O'Connor and Marco Vallerand back from injury.

The SSE Arena witnessed a series of early penalties; Kevin Raine called for boarding, followed by Marek Tronincksy for high sticks and Eberle for tripping.

The latter call opened up a 5-on-3 opportunity for the hosts, but they couldn't find the killer shot. Two goals in the space of 10 seconds sent a lightning bolt through the game.

First, Nikolai Lemtyugov swept past Mark Garside and prodded under goalie Shane Owen - the South Yorkshire club's 150th league goal this term.

But the lead lasted only until Bobby Farnham shot through Tomas Duba's legs after Steelers had lost possession.

A disputed Davey Phillips' roughing infraction saw Giants took a 2-1 lead before the break, Rickard Palmberg, crashed in from the right wing inside the near post.

Sheffield had gone ahead, lost the lead, and gone behind all in the space of 67 seconds.

And with Eberle hurt, Aaron Fox had a job on his hands to get back into it.

However defenceman Josef Hrabal - who wants to improve his offensive contribution - equalised at 37:34, with the hard-grafting Lemtyugov involved in the move.

So both teams were level as the final 20 minutes got underway and Troncinsky came within a whisker of putting Steelers ahead; his effort striking the post.

It was Giants that went ahead for a second time though, in front of 4,314 fans, David Goodwin slotting the puck over the line, from Mark Garside and Elgin Pearce, at 51:08.

Steelers had shut out Belfast twice, this season, but needed something special to salvage this.

They couldn't find it and Belfast's Elgin Pearce had the final say.