Fife Flyers 3-1 Sheffield Steelers: League hopes take another battering after dismal weekend

Sunday saw Steelers lose 3-1 at bottom-of-the-table Fife; they'd been beaten 2-5 by second-from-bottom Dundee Stars the night before.

Flyers strolled to victory despite the fact they'd lost 15 of their last 16 games.

Although Sheffield had two top-tier Brits out, they possess the financial clout to employ two imports cooling their heels off the ice.

So the question is: what's gone wrong with Steelers - a team branded lazy and selfish by their own coach the night before?

Why have heroes become zeroes?

Steelers, who may sign a Canadian back-up goalie just before Monday's transfer deadline, are now nervously looking at results around them, as Cardiff Devils have four games in hand. Thankfully Devils lost at Guildford.

In Fife, Sheffield got off to a disastrous start.

First, Chase Schaber shot past Tomas Duba. Just 25 seconds into the next shift, Carlo Finucci added another.

Steelers' best scoring hope is Marco Vallerand yet he went through a hellish spell in which he was penalised for embellishment and then injured his shoulder.

Four-season Flyer Finucci added a third at 15:14 and Steelers' league season started to vanish into the very ice they were playing on.

Coach Aaron Fox, normally the coolest of heads, challenged the officiating at the first hooter, but he must have been equally upset with his skaters.

How Sheffield needed a magic remedy.

It almost came when Brendan Connolly hit Adam Morrison's post, Lucas Sandstrom re-directed wide, while Anthony DeLuca and Tanner Eberle had half chances.

But Duba was also the main factor why Finucci didn't notch a hat-trick.

The middle period goals Sheffield so badly needed didn't materialise.

Nikolay Lemtyugov fired wide after the interval, Lucas Sandström powered the puck into Morrison's mask and Vallerand was equally unlucky as Steelers deployed desperate hockey.

Lemtyugov and DeLuca were involved in punch-ups, but their energy was needed elsewhere.

With six minutes remaining, Sandström snatched a goal back.

Duba was pulled, Fife hit a post and after the dust settled, Steelers were looking at the potential wreckage of their regular season.

They'd expected to lose the odd match in the run-in, but four straight appears hockey suicide. However Sheffield remain three points clear for the time being.