Sheffield Steelers v Nottingham Panthers: Signs are good as Steelers pick up double win

You can't tell everything from the first two challenge matches - these are early days of course.

And the side is without recuperating Brendan Connolly and injured Mason Mitchell.

But two weekend wins will give Sheffield fans a glow of satisfaction.

Overall, the squad, slightly younger on average than last season, has nine Brits, four Americans, seven Canadians, three Czechs a Swede and a Finn.

On Saturday, 20-year-old Czech Adam Raska took the spotlight with a hat-trick in the away tie at Nottingham.

Sheffield had been 4-2 down with 10 minutes remaining.

Evan Mosey and Raska levelled it up and in penalty shots, Raska won it.

He'd scored the first of the season, earlier on. Martin Latal got the other in the 5-4 win.

Both import goalies shared 30 minutes.

On Sunday, Sheffield were again second-best in the early stages. Nottingham won duels in Steelers' zone, had a shot on goal within 10 seconds and 13 seconds later Adam Brady beat Matt Greenfield.

An aggressive check by Niklas Nevalainen on Tanner Sorenson injected some life into the home side

Robert Dowd brought the fans to his feet with a shot they thought had gone in, and Scott Allen's 'goal' was washed out for high sticks at 14:54.

Chances were going begging, Dowd fanning on a Matt Petgrave pass just before the first interval.

Aaron Fox's team were under the cosh for much of the middle session yet, won it 2-0.

Daniel Ciampini illustrated his offensive skills with a top corner power-play goal at 20:36.

Then it was all about survival-mode with Brandon McNally taking a four-minute high-sticks penalty and Davey Phillips also seeing the inside of the penalty box.

When Petgrave wasn't defending he slipped forward, though, finding a chink to slide the puck home for 2-1 at 34:26.

Frustration temporarily set in, during the third session.

Sheffield's cutting edge disappeared on a power play and Nottingham hit back with an equaliser from Mike Hammond.

The Great Britain centre then swept in a simply brilliant finish at 52:31 to take the lead for a second time.

But then the match turned on its head, with two goals in 19 seconds, a bullet from Sébastien Piché and a breakaway from Dowd, for a 4-3 win.

Steelers' third pre-season game faces off at Manchester Storm on Wednesday.

ECHL team Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed 201-game Sheffield forward, Tanner Eberle.