Sheffield Steelers v Nottingham Panthers: Robert Dowd back amongst goals in Steelers victory

It was a wafer-thin, come-from-behind result for Aaron Fox's men, who remain top of the qualifying division.

Nottingham had come into the Arena game with a strong focus, winning many of the one-on-one battles and having a goal washed out for offside.

Stephen Anderson missed a wide-open chance when the puck came to him at speed in 44 seconds and the home side then faced two penalty kills.

On the second, a penalty awarded against Matthew Petgrave for roughing, Jeremy Welsh put Notts ahead, assisted by Adam Brady.

The speed of Adam Raska and Brett Neumann threatened to eat into Panthers' lead, and a breakaway and a subsequent penalty shot from Martin Latal was denied only by goalie Alex Dubeau's excellence.

But despite outshooting the visitors, Sheffield were fortunate David Levin didn't bury another chance before the first break.

Neumann had an inviting chance and Scott Allen was similarly luckless and it took fourth liners Tomas Pitule and Brandon McNally to lead Sheffield to parity on the scoreboard.

Both had turned up the heat with an aggressive assault on Panthers' goal before the Czech assisted on McNally's equaliser at 37:50.

Panthers were over-run in the final segment and looked out of it when Dowd's speculative shot somehow eluded Dubeau.

They did hit the post though, as they sought to find their mojo.

But they returned south down the M1 with nothing to show.