MANCHESTER Storm has an unhappy start to the new year suffering back-to-back defeats against Sheffield Steelers.

The Altrincham-based Storm welcomed Steelers to a sold-out Silverblades Ice Rink on New Year's Day and were denied in overtime in a thrilling first Elite Hockey League clash of 2016.

After a 5-2 defeat at Cardiff Devils two days earlier, Storm started well in front of a near-2,000 crowd.

They took the lead just before the 10-minute mark thanks to a fine goal from Paul Phillips – his ninth of the season – and remained in front at the end of the first period.

But the Steelers were able to get on the board early in the second, thanks to Jason Hewitt.

The Storm were undeterred, though, and were back in the lead less than 30 seconds later due to on loan player Adam Harding finding the back off the net off from a precision pass by Matt Paton.

Not happy with just a single-goal lead, man-of-the-match Patrik Valcak grabbed his first of the night 30 seconds later to send the Storm Shelter crowd to it’s feet.

Valcak then scored his second while the Storm were on the power play.

The third period, however, was when fatigue would start to set in on the Storm.

The Steelers were able to bag two quick goals before netting the equalising goal with just less than two minutes remaining. That led to sudden-death overtime and the visitors won it with a deflected shot under Zane Kalemba to seal a 5-4 triumph.

The following day, Storm travelled across the Pennines for the reverse fixture and again took an early lead when Matt Paton netted just two minutes in.

However, Levi Nelson slotted one past Kalemba to level the scores before the end of the first period.

The second period saw fast hockey being played by both teams but a shot from Russ Moyer edged the hosts ahead.

The Storm's lack of men came to light in the third period, as tired legs were unable to stop the Steelers from scoring two more goals early on.

The Storm battled on and Grant Toulmin blasted home to make it 4-2.

But as they chased the game by pulling Kalemba off, the Steelers made it 5-2 into an unguarded goal.