OPENING night against Cardiff Devils never went according to plan for Sheffield Steelers - but Aaron Fox believes his team is an altogether different beast compared to then.

The Steelers lost out 3-1 on home ice to the Devils but head down to South Wales tonight for the first meeting between the two teams since September 10 in buoyant mood.

Since coming off second-best against Brodie Dupont’s team, the Steelers have lost just twice in 10 games, both in overtime, once in the Elite League, the other in the Challenge Cup.

Last weekend saw the Steelers score 12 goals in two games on the road, even returning home from Dundee Stars on Sunday having shut their Scottish hosts out in a dominant 5-0 victory.

GETTING BETTER: Sheffield Steelers' head coach Aaron Fox says his players can go to Cardiff in confident mood. Picture courtesy of Dean Woolley/Steelers Media.

Not surprisingly, Steelers’ head coach Fox likes his group right now and believes that, after a bedding-in period, they are all on the same page.

“I felt we actually played well that first night when we lost to Caridf,” said Fox. “Now, though, I just feel like, as a group, we’ve come together system-wise, concept-wise and we’re all on the same page a bit more than back then. Some of the little things that hurt us earlier in the year are not hurting us anymore.

“It just takes a little time but we’ve got a couple of lines that are rolling pretty good right now - there’s some good chemistry. I think we’re a better hockey team than when we played Cardiff back then.

“That top line has been excellent all through, then we have (Tomáš) Pitule and Lats (Martin Latal) with Dowdy (Robert Dowd) and Dowdy has found his game right now, Lats had three goals on the weekend which is great and then Danny Kristo coming in to play with (adam) Raska and (Brandon) McNally has given that line some extra jump.”

IN FORM: Martin Latal impressed for Sheffield Steelers last weekend by scoring three goals. Picture courtesy of Dean Woolley/Steelers Media.

Even at this early stage of the season, there is plenty riding on tonight’s game before the Steelers head home to prepare playing host to Fife Flyers tomorrow afternoon (face-off 4pm).

“The way we’ve been playing gives us confidence going into Cardiff,” added Fox. “But we know it’s going to be a hard game, it always is against that team. They are very deep, they have a great power play and they’ve got great goaltending.

“From our point of view we know we’ll have to play a very good, solid 60 minutes in order to stand a chance of bringing anything back with us.”

Sheffield Steelers 'different beast' ahead of latest Elite League clash with Cardiff Devils