Tomas Duba can't stop smiling after helping Sheffield Steelers team to Challenge Cup victory

In the humdrum surrounds, the professional athlete, his wife and family, looked slightly out of place.

Not because of any elitism attached to the 38-year-old Czech ice hockey goaltender.

More to do with the beaming smile that was permanently fixed from one ear to the other.

Duba had earlier proved once again that a weekend is a long time in sport - he'd bounced back from one pretty harrowing night to guide his Sheffield Steelers' team to a Challenge Cup final win at the home of Cardiff Devils.

In the first game, he'd been below par and his side had lost 7-3 to the Welsh, in a league encounter.

"Dubes" was then duly slaughtered by some 'experts' on social media.

His team became rank underdogs to get anything out of Sunday's cup final return to the same venue.

But the goalie showed a level of quality and composure that filled the rest of his team with confidence.

That was most evident in a challenging middle period, when Cardiff dominated and poured 24 shots on his goal frame.

Duba conceded just two of those, giving Sheffield a base to build on and eventually win the game 4-3, sparking scenes of delirium from the players, coaching staff and 1,500 travelling fans.

Noticeably, the vocal Devils fans who had sought to unnerve him in warm-up were nowhere to be seen at this point.

Coach Aaron Fox said that if you look back at Friday's defeat at the Viola Arena: "Dubes arguably had his worst game of the year.

"After that hockey game we held things internally we did things our way, the way we normally do.

"Guys pushed back hard. We came out ready to go. Firing on all cylinders, playing a play off type game.

"We lost our legs a little in the second (period) they kind of took it to us, but Dubes held the fort out for us when we needed him there and then we played the hockey game the right way."

Duba has played an exhausting 58 games this season - a campaign in which he never asked to be the sole occupier of the custodian role.

It had been originally envisaged that Pavel Kantor should be Sheffield's starting netminder, with Duba there as back-up and adviser. But Kantor didn't cope well with the pressure and iced just five times before being chopped.

That meant that pretty much the full weight of the season then fell on the former Czech international's shoulders.

And he didn't disappoint in that memorable cup final.

Few people - even Cardiff fans - could begrudge Duba that smile and a big Mac and fries.

*Fox refuses to entertain the thought that the league title is now completely out of Steelers' grasp.

He says they will try to win all their remaining games and hope leaders Cardiff slip up in their three games-in-hand.