Steelers maintain their lead at the top of the EIHL

Their defensive prowess is another critical part of their success, some 15 league games into a 54-match EIHL season.

They concede far fewer than any other Elite team.

With a busy schedule coming up into the New Year, they now need to work on scoring more at home.

In the last five games, they have banged home 12, compared with 25 strikes away from Sheffield.

Four of the latter came in a nip-and-tuck game at Fife Flyers.

The Scots may be bottom of the league but the Fife Ice Arena always presents a challenge so Sunday's 4-3 victory was welcome by Steelers, especially after losing in penalty shots at home the night before.

Flyers had been a couple of players short, compared to Steelers' squad, but twice managed to pull back from two goals down.

They toiled hard enough for their coach Tom Coolen to claim later that they had "put it a little bit of a scare in" Steelers.

Josh Nicholls was in the away penalty box when his team-mates went ahead, Scott Allen scoring the short-hander.

It was 2-0 on 25 minutes when Patrick Watling netted, his 11th point in seven games.

There was an ugly five minutes then for Sheffield with Troy Lajeunesse and Max Humitz levelling the scoreboard.

Mikko Juusola's third Sheffield goal was contested by Coolen.

He said: "It looked like their player knocked our goalie over; they wouldnt review it, I don't know why."

The goal stood and Sheffield's advantage became 4-2 when man of the match Nicholls ended a barren spell, backhanding his first goal in 15 outings.

Fife, while being heavily outshot, don't give up easily and Vitalijs Pavlovs's goal with seven minutes remaining ensure a tight finish.

*On Saturday, Aaron Fox's side had lost 2-3 to Guildford Flames, their second loss at home on the bounce, and their third in all.

The scorers in the match were Brett Neumann and Daniel Ciampini.

*Meanwhile the Nottingham Panthers have suffered fresh heartache after the death of former player Mike Urquhart, who passed away after a short illness.

They posted: "Many fans will also know Mike as the friendly face greeting you in Block 4 on game days. Rest in Peace Mike. You were a true legend of the sport in the UK and we will miss you."