BRAEHEAD CLAN ended the weekend with a 3-3 draw at Sheffield Steelers, but lost out on the RV Holiday Inn Cup on aggregate ahead of their Champions Hockey League debut.

After going down 4-0 in Saturday’s first game, Ryan Finnerty’s side improved on the night to go into this week’s European ties in Sweden and Germany in good spirits.

Clan went close in the first period, with Steelers’ goalie Tyler Plante denying Stefan Meyer when it looked like the away side would take a goal lead.

But it somehow ended goalless, despite chances at both ends of the ice, setting up an intriguing clash.

It took barely a minute for Braehead to open the scoring as Alex Leavitt got a redirect on the shot that took the puck beyond Plante.

Then Meyer added number two seconds later when his shot found itself going through the Steelers netminder’s legs and into the net.

Jeff Legue pulled one back and drilled a low shot under Braehead’s goalie Chris Holt to reduce the arrears to one.

But Ben Davies made it 3-1 for the visitors when his one timer, from Scott Pitt’s pass flew past Plante.

The home side upped the ante in the final period when Matthieu Roy slipped the rebound from Cullen Eddy’s blue line shot into the net.

Then Mike Duco rounded things off to equalise late on, confirming Sheffield had won the RV Holiday Inn Cup with a 7-3 aggregate result.

It was a productive outing for the Glasgow side who did well to restore some pride and momentum ahead of their CHL debut.

First up is Swedish cracks Vaxjo Lakers on Thursday night before going up against Ingolstadt in Germany two nights later.

The return legs are scheduled for the end of the month before the Elite Ice Hockey League gets underway at Nottingham on August 30.

Meanwhile, former Stanley Cup winner Ric Jackman as assistant coaching role.

Finnerty sai about the appointment: "We’re a fast growing organisation on and off the ice with big ambitions going forward, we felt it was important to grow our support system this season.

“With Richard Hartmann also coming onboard, we feel with the addition of Ric we have plenty of knowledge and experience going forward.

"When we signed Ric we we’re aware he had aspirations of becoming more involved in coaching so we felt it was good progression for both parties.

“I’m looking forward to working with Ric, and with the addition of Richard I believe we have one of the strongest coaching setup’s in the league.”