Cardiff Devils 4 Sheffield Steelers 3: Second away defeat as Welsh giants edge tight clash

Sheffield had a mountain to climb from the start, as they were without suspended forward duo Marco Vallerand and Michael Davies. But they took the lead inside five minutes when Nikolai Lemtyugov scored a delayed penalty.

Cardiff, last season's Play Off champions, levelled the score on 16 minutes through Gleason Fournier on their fourth attempt at the power play.

Steelers, who were beaten 2-3 at home by Devils in September at the House of Steel, had won all but one of their six League away games. And they looked to be on course for another victory when Brendan Connolly scored five minutes into the second period.

But the hosts levelled three minutes later via Masi Marjamäki.

And quick as a flash, Cardiff were ahead through Fournier.

Just after the half hour mark, the Steelers were level at 3-3 when Marek Troncinsky netted.

Steelers coach Aaron Fox's last visit to the Viola Arena had been with his KHL team Medvescak Zagreb, a weekend which had resulted in two big wins for the Croatians.

But there was to be no such repeat as Fournier grabbed his hat trick goal, which proved enough for Cardiff to take the win.

The Steelers pushed hard for the victory in what proved to be a scoreless final period, largely down to the efforts of Swinton-born netminder Ben Bowns in the Cardiff goal.