Sheffield Steelers 2 Nottingham Panthers 3: Steelers slip to rare home defeat

They had battled back from 0-2 down to Nottingham Panthers with a brace of goals in the final six minutes.

But Steelers were beaten by a sudden death overtime drive by Samuel Herr, one of the best skaters on the ice all evening.

At least they took a single point from the contest.

Sheffield had been without offensive kingpin Marco Vallerand, who picked up an injury in the first game of the New Year series.

And the home side were a little short of creativity in the opening period.

Like the previous night when Steelers were 3-2 victors at Nottingham on New Year's Eve, it ended 0-0 with Panthers behind some of the better moves.

If Dylan Malmquist had shown more precision, Notts would have taken the lead.

He had a chance after 44 seconds and shot wide from a good position 12 minutes later.

Steelers again depended on Tomas Duba's unflappable style in goal - he denied Robert Lachowicz with double save and stopped Herr on a one-on-one contest.

Aaron Fox's men showed occasional offensive promise, a clever Nikolai Lemtyugov pass set up Lucas Sandstrom, but the Swede couldn't get the better of Kevin Carr in Panthers' goal.

A nightmare middle period opened with a neat Nottingham transition, with Jacob Hansen scoring, assisted by Samuel Herr.

Marek Troncinsky had a chance to level but he failed to convert and then took an interference penalty.

Herr swivelled and fire home on the power play to make it 2-0 at 24:37.

All manner of ills then befell the South Yorkshire side.

Sandstrom fanned on a Ben O'Connor pass, Eric Meland failed to profit from a Jonathan Phillips' feed, Anthony DeLuca broke his stick on a power play attack and Michael Davies suffered a facial injury.

Panthers played with composure, hit the post through Ryan Horvat, and seemed to be sitting pretty as the second interval arrived.

With Mark Matheson orchestrating the Nottingham show at his own pace, the visitors looked good value for the two points, yet they could not profit from a 143-second five-on-three power play, when Aaron Brocklehurst and Brendan Connolly were penalised.

Brocklehurst's match effectively ending early with a 2+10 punishment for checking from behind.

But it was another defenceman who suddenly brought the crowd on their feet, Troncinsky making it 1-2 at 53:43, on the power play.

Momentum changed completely, Panthers were turning over the puck and hemmed in their own zone, Steelers hit the bar and then Tanner Eberle equalised at 58:17.

There was a sickening blow for the 8671 crowd in overtime though as Herr grabbed his second and both points, at 62:49.