Sheffield Steelers pay their respects to the Queen as league returns to action

With the sporting landscape, national and local, all but closed down following the death of Her Majesty, ice hockey continued and Steelers were allowed to present a reverential pre-match salute to the monarch.

And that they did.

The club provided a fitting tribute and one will remain long in the memory, as opposed to the match that followed it.

Steelers lost 1-3 on the opening day of the EIHL season on Saturday at Sheffield Arena.

They rallied on Sunday, though, winning 4-1 at Guildford Flames.

On Saturday night, they just couldn't find the goals, an issue that had reared its head in the previous two exhibition games.

Some 6,645 fans had watched their team of largely new imports come undone by 24-year-old Home Counties lad Sam Duggan, who scored twice and made another for Joshua Brittain.

While Adam Raška reduced the arrears to 1-2, the goals then simply dried up.

Afterwards, American coach Aaron Fox acknowledged the depth of feeling around the rink during the two-minute silence and national anthem.

"It was a great celebration of her life, I was impressed."

The team boss wasn't too disturbed with the eventual 1-3 home loss, saying there were a lot of positives to build on, although mistakes had been costly.

He also said the refereeing was "as bad as I have seen in my time here."

Skipper Jonathan Phillips said the pre-game recognition of the end of the Queen's reign made him proud to be British.

On the game, he felt his team, who allowed just 12 shots on their own goal, "dominated the play."

On Sunday, they found the missing goals at Guildford Spectrum.

Fox kept faith in the line combinations against Paul Dixon's men who had been overtime losers at Nottingham Panthers on Saturday.

The match got off to a bumpy start with Sheffield hitting the post and Ian McNulty and Brandon McNally taking penalties, for each side.

McNally benefitted from the sit-down and put Steelers ahead after work from his linemates Martin Latal and Raska at 11:33.

Raska, Robert Dowd, and Scott Allen all put goalie Eamon McAdam under more pressure before the first break.

But a Raska slashing penalty saw ex-Steeler Ben O'Connor partly orchestrate an equaliser, Peter Crinella making it 1-1 at 22:04.

Steelers defended two more penalty kills and scored shorthanded on the second, Allen despatching his first ever EIHL goal.

Then Sheffield had a 5-on-3 power play, striking the crossbar, and eventually took a 3-1 lead with Allen netting again.

Flames had a let-off when Steelers struck the post again but they were undone at 46:26 when they conceded their second shorthanded goal of the night, from Tomáš Pitule.