Steelers' hero won't be resting on laurels after Panthers hat-trick as boss explains player exit

His three goal strikes - his first such achievement for Sheffield - helped move the South Yorkshire club to within a single point of league leaders Guildford Flames, who have suddenly gone on the slide.

While Ciampini was delighted with his personal haul in the 5-1 victory, he was more concerned with continuing the team's winning habit, currently standing at nine straight wins.

"Scoring three was good, of course. I've said before goals can come in bunches,” he told The Star. “Everybody was happy for me but this was a big team win.

"Individual accolades are nice but the main thing was this was a well-rounded game. I am my own worst critic for sure. I watch every game back on video critiquing myself. The coach could sit me or kick my butt if I am not learning a lesson but I know if I am on form or not and I expect to be one of the best players out there."

Tuesday's game at the Motorpoint Arena started with Panthers surviving two first period penalties, with Ciampini striking the post on one of the plays. Alex Graham, back in the team for the first time since November 5, drew one of the penalties and was one several Steelers unfortunate not to break the deadlock.

Sheffield, without Davey Phillips and Tomas Pitule, were indebted to goalie Matt Greenfield who stopped a Matt Myers breakaway in the middle period. Then Sebastien Piche, who scored in the 3-2 reverse fixture win at Sheffield on Boxing Day, clashed with Stephen Anderson, both taking two minutes for fighting.

Nottingham had a goal disallowed in the 32nd minute - and felt aggrieved with the official’s call. It turned out to be the turning point.

Nottingham took a two-minute penalty in the aftermath and conceded a 34th minute Martin Latal top-shelf goal. That did little to placate the home crowd (6,640) but it supercharged Ciampini, who forehanded the puck home for 2-0 to Sheffield exactly one minute later.

Steelers always seem to have strong third periods. And at 46.30 it was game over as Latal doubled his personal tally for the night. Brett Welychka and Ciampini traded goals at either end before a breakaway brought up Ciampini's hat-trick.

*Steelers agreed a temporary restriction on outgoing player Adam Raška's career so he could not ice against them for the rest of the season.

Sheffield and the Czech centreman agreed to end his contract this week, and he is thought to be heading back to play in his home country.

Sheffield coach Aaron Fox had to lose at last one import off his roster when Evan Mosey and Scott Allen returned from injury. Raska, who scored a hat-trick on his debut in an exhibition match against Nottingham Panthers in September, had netted just once in his previous eight EIHL performances for Sheffield and there were some doubts about his contribution off the puck since his transition to the EIHL after leaving BK Mladá Boleslav.

When Raška was signed in the summer, Fox had described him as a top-six player who would be a huge addition to the squad.

So what went wrong? After his release Fox said: "I am not sure if anything really went wrong. To this day I'd say he is maybe the most skilled forward that we had in our group this year."

He said there had been a "translation barrier" in terms of the style he'd demonstrated in the Czech Republic as compared to the Elite League: “We had a lot of the same sort of conversations over and over on certain things I needed to see from him off the puck.

"He had 12 points in 18 games or something like that - if he had had 35 points in 18 games then you could get away with some of the off-the-puck stuff that you could maybe look the other way with."

Raska was +12 in the plus-minus statistics, but Fox said: "I needed more compete. We took him out of the line up when Mosey and Scotty came back and we won eight games in a row.

"He wants to play, he's at an age (28) where he is too young to be sitting in the stands in the UK. He came and said if he is not playing he'd like a release and I had no issue with that. We had two extras at the time anyway and you can't keep two for the season, no matter what."

Fox said it was an amicable parting. "Maybe if he had taken some of his goals and chances it would have been a different conversation. I felt if he is not going to play a top six role...I had better role players that I valued their games ahead of."

Fox said the forward had won them some games and been on the power play throughout. But the signing of Danny Kristo as injury cover further put the squeeze on his spot. The coach confirmed their release arrangement allowed him to play in mainland Europe, but not in this country.