Great Britain international Liam Kirk joins Ciaran Long on a tournament-high five goals as Sheffield Steelers thrash Nottingham Panthers 8-4 at the National Ice Centre in the 2021 Elite Series.

After Long moved onto five goals in four games in Manchester’s victory over Coventry last night, Kirk followed suit this evening with Sheffield’s seventh goal, while he also added two assists.

Sheffield forward Tanner Eberle netted twice to make it a trio of players on five goals at the top of of the goalscoring charts.

Steelers raced into a 5-0 first-period lead with former GB forward Jason Hewitt amongst the goals.

Nottingham were always playing catch-up and despite scoring twice in the second period, never looked like hauling themselves back into the game.

Former GB junior Josh Waller netted Sheffield’s sixth and Kirk scored the seventh as the Steelers went to the second intermission with a 7-2 lead.

Kevin Domingue and Austin Cangelosi both ended up with two goals each for the Panthers, but the damage had been done in the first period.

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Four teams – Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers – are competing in the 2021 Elite Series at the National Ice Centre.

The event has been organised under the government’s Elite Sport Guidance, with regular testing and a full covid-19 protocol in place.

All games are available to watch on a live stream – click here for more details and to purchase the webcasts.

Photo credit: Dean Woolley.