Sheffield Steelers: 'Rock' Tomas Duba aiming to have fun this season

Coach Aaron Fox thought the ‘awesome’ Czech goaltender's focus, agility and experience were major contributory factors behind the wins over Nottingham Panthers.

But as for Duba himself - he is just as happy to be in the team, or on the bench cheering Pavel Kantor on if his countryman gets the vote ahead of him in this weekend's trips to Fife Flyers and Dundee Stars.

"I am happy I can contribute to the team," says the 38-year-old, who has a 89.58 per cent save ratio in the Challenge Cup, 89.58 per cent in the league.

"Every game I try to give a chance to the team to win.

"At the moment I am happy that is me, it can change any time but I try to do my best every game" said Duba.

"At my age, I don't really mind, if I play or if I sit out, so I am just happy if the team wins.

"I enjoy being with the team, being in the locker room, it might be one of my last seasons so I try to have fun whether I play or I am on the bench."

Duba is a fan favourite in the Sheffield Arena stands.

The goalie joked: "Sometimes I don't know if they boo at me or they just shout: "Doo-ba!" It is hard to distinguish sometimes.

"No, I love it, I feed off the energy from the crowd and I enjoy it every time I play. I love it here so far."

Duba thinks the team may still have some way to go to establish exactly the profile they are looking for

"We were searching for our identity for a pretty long time and maybe we haven't found it yet."

He said it was important to play strong defensively, adding that the side had the capacity to be "extremely dangerous" in firepower terms.

The two teams who Steelers visit this weekend slugged it out against each other last Sunday.

Stars took the honours over Flyers with a 4-3 road win.

Fife were narrowly beaten the previous night by league pacesetters Glasgow Clan.

But they can pull good results out of the bag: they beat champions Belfast Giants 5-2 at home the week before and put 10 goals past Coventry Blaze over two games.

Dundee have beaten Belfast home and away - so it's clear Steelers will have to be operating at top notch to bring maximum points back over the border.