The Sheffield Steelers recorded their ninth straight home win in an ill-tempered Boxing Day affair at the Hallam FM Arena.
Victories for the Steelers, Panthers and the Phoenix
The Sheffield Steelers recorded their ninth straight home win in an ill-tempered affair at the Hallam FM Arena on Boxing Day.
Sheffield are now just a point behind league leaders Coventry Blaze after beating the Cardiff Devils 6-3.
Nottingham Panthers avenged their defeat at Coventry at the weekend with a late 3-1 comeback win at the National Ice Centre.
Sunday's reverse in Coventry remains the Panthers only defeat in their last 12 while the Blaze are closing 2007 in poor form.
Manchester Phoenix recorded their fourth win in five games with a 3-2 win against the struggling Newcastle Vipers meanwhile, on a day packed full of drama in the Elite League.
Sheffield Steelers 6 Cardiff Devils 3
The Steelers closed the gap on second-placed Cardiff to just one point with a 6-3 victory at home on Boxing Day.
Six major fighting penatlies were handed out by referee Andy Carson in the opening period with both sides going all out for the win.
Randy Dagenais, Jonathan Phillips (two), Ryan Finnerty, Jeremy Cornish and Doug Sheppard strikes eventually gave Sheffield the win.
And despite goals from Neil Francis, Paul Sample and Jason Silverthorn the Devils remain on 41 points having played three games more than their opponents.
Nottingham Panthers 3 Coventry Blaze 1
Adam Calder put the league leaders ahead in a match which saw some 30 penalty minutes handed out, including fighting majors to Blaze stars Danny Stewart and KC Timmons along with Panthers' Marc Levers and Ryan Shmyr.
Kevin Bergin restored parity early in the final period and Johan Molin scored the what turned out to be the winner at 57.58 to prevent overtime.
Corey Neilson then sealed the win with two seconds remaining to ensure the vast majority of the 5,000-strong crowd went home happy.
Manchester Phoenix 3 Newcastle Vipers 2
Simon Mangos, Sean Starke and Brett Clouthier scored the goals in the Phoenix's victory at the Altrincham Ice Dome.
Shaun Johnson added his fourth and fifth goals of the season for the Vipers, but could not prevent Newcastle slumping to their 14th defeat of the campaign.
The Panthers have now pulled level with the Vipers on points, whilst the Phoenix are now firmly established as seventh in the standings.