Ice Hockey: Cardiff go marching on at the double

While Sheffield Steelers were taking a point in the European Cup semi- finals in Finland, drawing 2-2 with HPK Hameenlinna, it was left to Cardiff Devils to stretch their lead at the top of the Superleague with wins over Bracknell Bees and Nottingham Panthers.

Cardiff were never in trouble in either game, beating Bracknell 2-1 in a dour tussle but never having to stretch themselves against Panthers, with unanswered goals by Steve Moria, Steffen Ziesche and Doug McCarthy sealing the 4-1 win after Marty Dallman had scored the marker for Panthers to match Ian Cooper's opener for Devils.

Manchester Storm and Nottingham Panthers produced one of the best games of the weekend. Jeff Sebastian opened the scoring for Storm after 13 seconds only for Ashley Tait, one of the few British players able to command a starting place in the new league, to level the score a minute later.

Eric Calder gave Storm a 2-1 lead at the end of the first session but three Panthers goals without reply, two from Brent Bobyck, made it 4-2 at the end of the second. Manchester, though, won with two goals from Shawn Byram and Nick Poole's winner two minutes from time.