Ten out of ten mark for Sheffield Steelers

Sunday's 4-0 shut out of the Irish on their home ice - which followed a 5-1 rout of the same team in South Yorkshire last month - more than implies that ambition is being realised.

Today Sheffield stand eight points clear of seventh-placed Giants, who have played two more league games.

More importantly, they are three points clear of Cardiff Devils at the top of the table, their best lead of the 2023-24 campaign.

Devils's shoot-out loss at bottom club Coventry Blaze put the icing on the weekend cake.

And that cake should be shared in equal portions by Matt Greenfield, Cole Shudra and Colton Saucerman.

Greenfield stopped 23 shots at the SSE Arena to add to his four other clean sheets in EIHL and pre-season.

Shudra is showing the goal and assists form he exhibited at Leeds Knights in the NIHL.

The 25-year-old fourth-liner has notched three goals and three assists in his last four games. He is lighting it up.

Saucerman, Steelers' top defensive points-grabber, played a team-leading 28 minutes and two seconds in Northern Ireland.

The scale of the victory was made all the more headline-grabbing considering they had played in Dundee the night before.

There had certainly been no cobwebs in the first period, which Sheffield took 3-0, as they had on the previous evening in Scotland.

Oddly Belfast coach Adam Keefe thought his side were "good" in that opening session although he also admitted his faltering stars were "miles away from scoring a goal right now."

That mixed perspective mirrored his team's confusion on the ice as Mark Simpson, Shudra and Mikko Jussola all netted in a six-minute spell.

With 10 minutes left, Jussola added his second of the night to wrap up the points.

The Finnish forward might have found it tough finding the net in the Liiga, but he's doing the business here, with five strikes in six games.

On Saturday night, Steelers could afford some Christmas generosity in the third period at Dundee Stars.

Having led 5-0 at the start of the final session, they conceded four times.

Thankfully, they'd built up a big enough lead in the earlier stages to claim a 6-4 victory.

Goals came from Shudra (2) Patrick Watling, Brett Neumann, Saucerman, and Mitchell Balmas.

Put simply, Steelers' away form is championship-winning class...literally ten out of ten, in terms of victories.