'˜Unacceptable' defeats to Cardiff Devils must end on Friday says Sheffield Steeler

Sheffield have lost twice this season at home Devils, who have dominated the top-end of the table so far.

But if Steelers are to chalk up a third consecutive Elite League title, they are going to have to get past their main competitors.

The winger admits so far this year Cardiff have “had our number” at Sheffield Arena.

“We dominated in their building but they came to ours twice to beat us. That is unacceptable, we have to step up.

“Both games we took the lead and we let them come back and roll us over” he said.

“Obviously, if we want to win the League we have to win those games.”­

He said Cardiff had the same depth of players as Steelers had, if not more.

“They have four good lines, good defencemen, they have ‘too many’ imports with their coach sometimes playing and sometimes not. They always have a full line up.”

Desbiens says the arrival of 33-year-old veteran Yared Hagos, taking over from Tyler Mosienko as centreman on his line, had been a relatively easy transition.

He said of Hagos: “He has played in every top league in the world, very high quality hockey.

“Him coming here, he knows what to do. If he has been playing for that long it’s because he is doing something right.

“He has been very successful, so we knew, the coaches knew, what they were getting when they signed him. The fans are going to discover he is a very good two-way player.

“We have only played a handful of games, it’s hard to tell (what the difference is between Mosienko and Hagos.)

“Mosey likes to hang on to the puck a little bit more, Mosey was more ‘go in front of the net and try and be a screen’ while as Yared moves the puck a little bit quicker and things move around a little bit better so far it has been a pretty easy adjustment.”