Jaded Sheffield Steelers side resist fightback from clan to win 3-2 at the Arena

Saturday’s bumper Arena crowd watched Sheffield pull off a comparatively modest 3-2 victory over Glasgow Clan, adding two more points to their league title account.

Sheffield had played seven times in the 12 days since Boxing Day, and travelled to four EIHL rinks, including trips to Wales and Scotland, in that busy festive period.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that they didn’t dominate the scoreboard as they had earlier in the campaign.

There have been times this season when the championship pursuit has appeared a one-horse race in Steelers’ favour.

With Clan reducing Steelers’s lead to one goal with 11 seconds left, it was perhaps a valuable reminder that it won’t always be easy going down the stretch.

Yet, initially, it had looked as if Clan would be blown away.

Steelers were three goals ahead in six minutes, bringing New Year joy to the sell-out 9,368 fans.

Patrick Watling, Colton Saucerman and Josh Nicholls all planted the puck past Jake Kielly.

Clan, having conceded six against Sheffield on their own ice the night before, held an emergency team chat during a timeout.

And at 15:23 Gary Haden brought a flicker of life for the Scots with a goal past Tony Morrone.

Zach Vinnell was thrown out of the game with a five-plus game for spearing and penalties then cratered the middle period, with neither side managing to find the net again.

Sheffield routinely finish strongly in the final 20 minutes but they seemed jaded, were playing three lines, and had a late scare when Charlie Combs scored unassisted at 59:49.

Aaron Fox’s men hadn’t lost a period in the previous 10 outings, so Clan could at least take that limited achievement back over the border.

Meanwhile coach Fox reminded his troops that anything can happen if you lose control of a match in which you have led by three goals.