Three point weekend for Tom Barrasso although Sheffield Steelers dip 4-5 at Fife Flyers

Sheffield lost 5-4 in overtime in Scotland but take a point for going into the extra period. Coach Tom Barrasso had demanded four - but his side should now make the top eight in the standings.

Before the weekend, club official David Simms suggested six points would be enough to sail into the playoffs. Sheffield enjoyed a 4-1 victory on Saturday and after Sunday's single point must now face Cardiff, Milton Keynes, twice, and Belfast to see out the regular season.

Barrasso, who has two home League games left in charge, will keep an eye on the results of qualification rivals Manchester, Fife and Guildford.

"I'm firmly of the opinion that if we take care of our business we are fine" he says. "I've got everybody else's schedule written down, I'll keep track of the points, as each game ticks by the teams that have games in hand have some difficult schedules in front of them. There are no 'givens' but at the end of the day we need to take care of our business, win our games, I'll take my chances with that."

Barrasso said the initial six-points suggestion was "a place to start, anything less than that, we'd be in a very precarious spot."

Steelers started badly at Fife, they killed an early penalty but then conceded to a Brett Bulmer blast high past Jackson Whistle.

Whistle's vision was screened on Fife's second goal, from Danick Gauthier.

Steelers had to get at Todd Dutiaume's side quickly and it almost worked as Tom Zanoski rattled the home bar and goalie Shane Owen brilliantly denied Robert Dowd. But a John Armstrong powerplay strike put the visitors back in it.

Another PP advantage brought Aaron Johnson's first goal of the calendar year to make it 2-2 at 31;35.

Marcus Basara's tripping penalty gave Sheffield a fresh opportunity: first they hit the pipework before Ben O'Connor gave them the lead, for the first time.

It lasted five minutes - when Evan Bloodoff squared the game at 3-3.

Phillips and Bulmer exchanged goals in the last two minutes, but overtime belonged to Fife scorer  Rick Pinkston.