Fife Flyers shut out for third time in six league starts with 6-0 loss in Sheffield

The club has now lost five of its six opening EIHL games, and while it has netted 11 goals, eight of them came in a single game.

That form was mirrored in the Challenge Cup which, despite ending in qualification for the quarter-finals, saw the team win just two of its eight games and again struggle hit the net regularly.

While visits to Sheffield have rarely produced wins, the on-going poor form and losses will concern fans.

Once again, there was no Chase Schaber, as the club’s most recent signing spent another game on the sidelines.

Flyers conceded the opening period 2-0, and it was effectively game over by the end of the second as Steelers widened the gap to 5-0.

The hosts – current league leaders – thought they'd scored early on but the goal was ruled out for a high-stick.

However, Kevin Schulze was given too much space short side to slot past Shane Owen with just over 12 minutes gone to open the scoring, and they never really looked back.

Shane Owen pulled off an incredible diving save to keep Flyers within one, but less than two minutes later his efforts were in vain as Tabber Eberle capitalised on a rebound from a David Phillips shot to make it 2-0 at 17:46.

Three goals in just over as many minutes towards the end of the second period killed the game off.

Anthony DeLuca's wrist shot at 35:20 found its way past Owen with a little help from either the post or Matias Sointu, with Adrian Saxrud Danielsen adding a fourth 75 seconds later. Justin Hodgman's near pass set up Sointu for a back-post finish with 1:12 left in the period to put the Steelers 5-0 ahead.

DeLuca rounded off a comprehensive win 67 seconds from the final buzzer.

Todd Dutiaume, head coach, said it was “another game where we found inconsistencies getting the better of us.”

He added: “It was a quick paced game and our boots looked firmly planted on the ice at times. We were getting skated around quite a lot.”