Tonight: 8 teams looking for league points
Four games across the league tonight
There will be a special night in Sheffield for Jonathan Phillips, as well as some important league clashes tonight.
1900 Dundee Stars vs. Glasgow Clan
Dundee will look to end a run of losses when they welcome Scottish rivals Glasgow to Tayside in what's expected to be a near-sellout crows.
The Stars were beaten heavily in Belfast on Friday night, extending their winless run to five in all competitions - and six in league games.
"I'm looking for a response from our players after Belfast. We're trying to get out of a negative streak, and I need to see which guys are going to be part of the solution to this, otherwise we'll have to start reevaluating everything." - Omar Pacha (Head Coach, Dundee Stars)
Glasgow lost their winning steak at home to Coventry on Sunday, but will see a visit to the league's basement side as a good chance to get back to winning ways. The teams haven't met since the opening weekend of the season, and it was Dundee who had the Clan's number that weekend with wins in both games.
1900 Manchester Storm vs. Belfast Giants
Manchester look to improve on their run of three wins from the last four with the visit of Belfast to the Storm Shelter.
The Storm won midweek in cup action in Nottingham, and won one of their league visits to Belfast last weekend to move them off the foot of the table. They've also enjoyed success against Belfast this season at home, an overtime win back in September.
"We've been good against Belfast this season and I think we match up well against them. We've found our scoring touch of late and will need that to continue. However we know what a talented team Belfast are, and so we will need to stay very solid in our system and be opportunistic when our chances come." - Ryan Finnerty (Head Coach, Manchester Storm)
Belfast's five-goal win last night against Dundee will have given the Giants confidence, not least because of the seven difference goal scorers in a team that has also struggle for goals during the early part of this season. The Giants haven't won in Manchester since December of last year.
"We've been to Manchester before this season, so our players should know what to expect. It's another hockey game, but this is a team that took two points off us last week and we want to make sure we go there and take two back." - Adam Keefe (Head Coach, Belfast Giants)
1900 Noittingham Panthers vs. Fife Flyers
Nottingham go in search of their first home win since September when Fife Flyers come to town this evening.
The Panthers ended their losing run last weekend with a win in Cardiff, but home defeats to the Devils and then Manchester midweek mean that the team are still without a home win since 1 September.
"We have to establish ourselves at home to be hard to play against. We need to have a good start, and it's been the little things that we haven't been doing. These are the things that hurt, but we need win our battles. We owe Fife having lost both games there this season so far." - Tim Wallace (Head Coach, Nottingham Panthers)
Fife ended with three points from their series with Guildford last weekend after picking up a win in Surrey. The Flyers quietly gone about their business and are only three points off top spot in the table. If the Flyers are to try and break into the top group early on in the season, this will be the kind of game they need to leave with points from.
"Nottingham are one of the powerhouses in this league, and a very big test for us, but regardless of a league position right now we know that all teams in this league are good." - Todd Dutiaume (Head Coach, Fife Flyers)
1900 Sheffield Steelers vs. Coventry Blaze
It's a repeat of the opening night of league action for of these teams. That night, Coventry shocked the new-look Steelers side with a win at the FlyDSA arena in a very high-scoring affair.
Sheffield have been in excellent form of late. The Steelers have four league wins in a row despite the cup loss in Manchester last week, and have gone almost a month without losing at home. Interesting, their last three league wins in their own building have all happened by scoring four goals.
It is a special night as captain Jonathan Phillips will play his 1,000th Elite League game.
"I hope there isn't too much fuss about the milestone, because we want to crack on with a game against a very good Coventry side. I think the game is about us. We know the Blaze watched video and try to disrupt us, but the key for us is about keeping things simple, not over-playing, and keeping our level for the full 60 minutes." - Jonathan Phillips (Captain, Sheffield Steelers)
Coventry are three games unbeaten on the road. Their winning streak overall was ended at home to Guildford midweek, but that hasn't interrupted the Blaze's away record. Having gone in to Glasgow and won to knock them off top spot in the league, Coventry will now be trying to do the Clan a favour and deny the Steelers the points they need to stay top of the pile.
"I wasn't so happy with our performance against Guildford, but we managed to scrape a point. We need to get back to the level we were a week ago and make sure we're ready to compete." - Danny Stewart (Head Coach, Coventry Blaze)
