Tonight: Top of the table clash in Wales

Photo: Dean Woolley

It doesn't get any bigger than tonight's matchup at Ice Arena Wales where second-placed Cardiff Devils take on league leaders Sheffield Steelers.

Cardiff moved into second with a four-point weekend last time out, beating Belfast and home and Coventry away both by two goals. The Devils have won six straight games, scoring 23 goals and conceding only 11 over that time. With 16 points each, Brodie Reid and Justin Crandall are second and third overall for points in the league, while Reid continues to lead the league for goals with 11 in 12 games.

Sheffield went back to the top of the league table with last Sunday's 3-1 win in Guildford, which came a week after they exited the IIHF Continental Cup in Denmark, following a point in a dead-rubber Premier Sports Challenge cup game at home to Nottingham. The Steelers added forward Vojtěch Polák midweek as injury cover with Brendan Connolly and Marc-Olivier Vallerand out on IR. Anthony DeLuca is unavailable indefinitely. Vallerand is the Steelers' leading league goal scorer with six so far, with Rob Dowd behind him on five. The Steelers had have 16 different goal scorers of their 44 goals through 12 games.

The teams have met twice this season, but both of the games were in Sheffield, the Steelers winning 5-4 in overtime in September, before Cardiff blanked them 5-0 last month. The teams' previous meeting in Wales was the 2020 Premier Sports Challenge Cup Final which the Steelers won.