Sheffield Steelers given plenty to ponder after friendly defeat to Manchester Storm

A wasteful attitude to burying chances cost the South Yorkshire side.

And the best you can say about the 5-3 exhibition game loss is that it is better to get the kinks out now rather than when the serious stuff begins.

Fox told The Star: "We outshot them 40-18 and had five grade A chances in the last minute and a half but we didn't take our opportunities when we had them.

"It was a frustrating end to the game, but there had been a lot of positives.

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"The first two goals against weren't great but our goalie (Oskar Ostlund) settled and played real well after.

"It was the first time in that building for a bunch of our players and we did well on the penalty kill."

Playing in the close confines of Altrincham is never without its challenges, although Sheffield found it a happy hunting ground last season, winning five out of six games there, scoring a remarkable 36 goals.

That domination was not mirrored on the scoreboard on Wednesday, with Sheffield going two goals behind on three occasions.

Fox had previously suggested he would try different line permutations during the five exhibition games and he was true to his word with a starting line of Daniel Ciampini-Adam Raska-Robert Dowd.

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Storm, now under the coaching control of Matt Ginn, took the game by the scruff of its neck though with two backhand goals in the first ten minutes from Michael Korol and Tyson Fawcett.

Steelers halved that lead before the first interval with Brandon McNally's first goal for his new club, another backhander, on the power play.

Manchester, a team with an average age of 25, kept up the pace after the break and skipper Cameron Critchlow roofed the puck at the halfway point, after a Brett Neumann-inspired assault on the other end had broken down.

Steelers could not afford to let Storm dictate the period and dragged themselves back into the game with Evan Mosey tapping in at 36;40, after a fine stretch pass from Matt Petgrave.

Storm's offensive players were enjoying themselves, though.

And Scott Simmonds was the fourth Manchester scorer on the sheet, ten minutes later after a two-on-one breakway.

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The visitors could have done with a lapse in standards from home goalie Hayden Lavigne but he defied several Steeler chances.

Storm then took advantage of the empty net to record a 5-3 win, following a giveaway pass on the right wing, Critchlow stroking home his second of what for Sheffield was a pretty forgettable night.

Saturday's opponents, Coventry Blaze, did not fare well either. They were beaten 4-1 by Nottingham Panthers at the Skydome.