Nottingham Panthers forward Bruce Richardson insists his side's title dreams are still alive as they go into a crucial five days of their season.
Panthers travel to Belfast on Friday night, before visiting arch-rivals Sheffield on Saturday and hosting Coventry on Tuesday.
Richardson told BBC Radio Nottingham: "I won't lie that it's going to be hard but we still believe in ourselves.
"We're not done till we're done - the group here believe we can do it."
Victory for Panthers on Friday night would close the gap on Sheffield to nine points with eleven games left in the season.
Panthers will be without injured Great Britain internationals David Clarke and Danny Meyers. Meanwhile, netminder Geoff Woolhouse is also absent - he is away with the GB University side in China.
Youngster Sam Bullas will make the trip to Northern Ireland and is expected to get regular ice-time.
Richardson added: "We don't care what people around us think - the most important thing is that we believe we can accomplish it.
"But if at the end it doesn't work out, we know we gave everything we can to try to accomplish our goal."
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