Sheffield Steelers: Tomas Duba ahead in the battle of the netminders

Pavel Kantor was sidelined after the side lost 5-2 at Manchester Storm last Saturday, when he recorded an 84 per cent save ratio.

Duba replaced him for the 2-3 loss to Cardiff Devils on Sunday and after an uncertain start on home ice played solidly, with an 89 per cent success-rate.

Kantor had been criticised by some fans.

When The Star asked coach Aaron Fox whether he remained confident in his abilities, he replied: "Kanty has played two times in the last three and a half weeks, I think, and he made some good saves in both of those games and there is a couple in both games where we'd all like him to have back.

"The whole point of this process was to give us two quality goalies to compete and obviously Dubes has been the guy who has answered the bell here and clearly made his case to be the guy that we continue to run with at the moment.

"I don't know whether I answered your question directly there, but at the end of the day I play the guy that is playing better and right now that is Dubes."

Steelers have won five and lost five in their opening sequence in Challenge Cup and League.

Fox said he'd wanted a better return in the win column.

"I don't think that is the perfect start. I think we have left points out there, I think we have played better than the record shows.

"You have to figure out what your identity is and there is going to be some bumps on the road to get that figured out and I think we have come to the realisation that the easier we make the game on ourselves in our own end and the neutral zone, the more fun it is and the easier it is to get in the (offensive) zone and go to work.

"Sometimes you need to make mistakes and have some hiccups along the way to take you to that stage."

He thought the Cardiff loss could have gone either way.

Steelers play Nottingham Panthers, this coming weekend.

On Sunday, Mark Matheson and team-mates became the latest victim of Glasgow Clan's eye-catching start to the season, going down 2-3 at home, after a shoot out.

The night before Panthers were outgunned 2-4 at home to Zack Fitzgerald's league leaders.