Sheffield Steelers' main issue laid bare after double defeat weekend

On Saturday goal-shy Sheffield lost at home to title rivals Cardiff Devils, for the second time this season.

At times, they looked like they needed a Marco Vallerand figure.

The following day, Steelers were outgunned 5-4 at Coventry Blaze, twice coming back from two goals down but failing in penalty shots.

Defenceman Alexander Kuqali had put the Midlanders ahead on eight minutes, his first league goal for them.

The game warmed up with a physical edge before Garrett Johnston made it 2-0 for Danny Stewart's men.

But the two scorers from the previous night Brett Neumann and Robert Dowd struck back hard to put Steelers on even terms.

It was cetainly an open game with Mitch Cook restoring Coventry's lead at 27:43.

Sheffield's much vaunted defence conceded another, a rebound for Tanner Lishchynsky (4-2) but the see-saw game immediately tilted back the other way with Martin Latal on the mark.

Sheffield kept the drama going with with a 4-4 equaliser from Danny Kristo.

Steelers killed a Daniel Ciampini tripping penalty in overtime, before firing blanks in the penalty shootout.

Saturday's home loss by Cardiff featured an explosive start, with Devils' Joey Martin netting after 39 seconds, but officials ruled the net had come adrift.

Instead, the opening goal came on a Sheffield power play with Neumann providing the perfect shot from wide left.

Devils' third line equalised, Sam Duggan connecting with blurring speed to forehand into the roof of the net.

Sheffield had dominated the first period shots (13-4 shots) but Cardiff held on.

After allowing 13 shots on their net in the first period, Devils weathered a further 17 in the second.

But there was no sharpness up front and with Devils' goalie Ben Bowns twice denying Tomas Pitule, the only goal went the way of the Welsh, Brodie Reid's lightning reaction beating Greenfield's lunging dive.

Dowd injected some belief back into the Arena with an equaliser at 46:56.

While Cardiff weren't creating much, when they did, there was a chilling quality in the way they opened Sheffield up, Cole Sanford finding plenty of space to win the match.

Much of the weekend reflection will be on Sheffield's home form, with two losses in the last three games.

Fox said: "We have got to find a way to get pucks into the back of the net at home; we haven't scored a lot of goals lately, despite the number of shots.

"Defensively I hold our group to a high standard. It has been pretty good lately (10 home wins out of 15 at home) here but we have to find a way to manufacture more goals."

Asked if they needed a Vallerand-type figure, he replied: "We have a lot of very good hockey players, we are playing by far the best team-hockey in my time here.

"Everybody is buying into a concept and playing the right way defensively. Yes we need to score more goals, no question about it.

"Hopefully we'll get our leading goal scorer Scott Allen, who has been out, back shortly. Evan Mosey is close as well."

"It looks like we'll be able to add a couple of pieces to the puzzle soon" added Fox, although Mosey is far from sure, himself, that he'll be back in a quick timeframe.