Glasgow Clan 5-3 Sheffield Steelers

Sheffield conceded goals in bunches to lose out 5-3 at Glasgow Clan.

The defeat against Malcolm Cameron's side had been coming.

Three of their previous games this season had been tight affairs decided by one goal.

Coach Aaron Fox thought his side had created enough chances to win but blamed two five-minute stretches where his team was "light and soft" and conceded quick goals.

"We have found a way to win a lot of games that maybe we didn't deserve, I thought this was a game we could have won," he said.

Cameron said they'd dragged Steelers into "deep water" before, but their midweek win had been a morale booster. "Psychologically we needed this," he said.

Fortunately for Sheffield, third-placed Cardiff Devils were beaten by Dundee Stars.

But their own loss blew the chance of going five points clear over Belfast Giants, who have now played a single game more.

Wednesday's match started at a high tempo, with Robert Dowd, close to snapping a seven-game dry spell in front of goal. His effort fizzed just wide of Shane Starrett's post.

Mathieu Roy responded by thudding a shot into Rok Stojanovic's chest.

The action boiled over on five minutes with Sam Jones and Dyson Stevenson dropping the gloves at centre ice and Cody Sol serving two minutes for roughing.

On the power play, Martin Latal and Justin Hodgman powered shots in.

But Clan held out and Colton Yellow Horn and Roy and were both thwarted by Stojanovic as they stepped up their offensive intensity at the other end.

Mitch Jones' excellent shot from the slot eventually flashed high past the goalie to put the Scots ahead at 17:22.

Matias Sointu and Vojtech Polak's narrowly failed to execute on the power play at the start of the second session.

The lack of penetration wasn't shared by Glasgow, who added their second through the impressive Jordan Buesa at 27:14.

Just 13 seconds later, new signing Braylon Shmyr made it 3-0.

The Braehead match was less than halfway through but Sheffield now had a mountain to climb.

Tanner Eberle is a man to rely on in crisis times and he pulled one back at 35:42. Then came the heartbreak of a goal ruled out less than a minute later.

Steelers had another power play at 37:15 though and Kevin Schulze's wrist shot from deep reduced the score gap to 3-2.

All the good work was undone during the first two minutes of the final period.

Mikko Vainonen and, on the power play, Guillaume Gauthier, put the game out of Sheffield's reach with a goal apiece.

Hodgman hit the post, but the home side was restricting high-grade chances on their net.

With just over 11 minutes remaining, Eberle buried his second of the night to give Steelers some faint hope.

But a Dowd shot hit the post and his team ran out of time.