Devils 3, Flyers 1 - End of Second
Just like last Saturday, the Cardiff Devils traveled up to Scotland, this time ready to face the Fife Flyers. After a not so successful trip last weekend, everyone was hoping that tonight would be different. Missing from the Devils' line-up tonight is Canadian defensemen Mark Smith, with Scott Makza back in the line-up after missing the Devils' win over the Braehead Clan on Sunday, in the BBT. Flyers missing starting goaltender Garrett Zemlak, and defensemen Thomas Muir.
The game started out with end to end action. Both Stevie Lyle and Flyers' back-up tender Blair Daly saw some shots in the only 10 minutes. Apart from that, there wasn't much going on, until about the seven minute mark, when Cardiff defensemen Chris Frank was sent to the box for slashing. Devils killed the penalty and continued with the game... only for Frank to be sent back to the box on an inference call. This came about when a Flyers' player took a shot, Lyle saved it, and the Flyers' player took a tumble. Before the two-minute penalty was over, Frank was joined by Jeff Pierce in the box, as the Devils were called up for too many men on the ice. Although shorthanded the Devils made some excellent plays, with the likes of young Brit Ben Davies coming close to scoring. Much like with the first penalty, the Devils killed it off and continued on.
Just over five minutes after the last penalty, power forward Phil Hill managed to get one past Daly, who, up until that point, had been staying strong in between the pipes, despite being a back-up goaltender. Assists went out to Captain Stuart MacRae and Chris Frank, who was well on course for a Gorgie Howe hat-trick; unfortunately we didn't get to see one. The Devils continued to shoot at the goal, tallying fourteen shots to the Flyers' seven, but Daly held strong for the remainder of the period. Score at the end of the first, 1-0 Devils.
Into the second, and the Flyers' were desperate to even the score. They tried taking out key Devils' players, such as Jeff Pierce and Chris Frank, but even this couldn't help. At 31:49, new signing Josh Batch scored his first goal for the Devils, with the assists going to Brad Voth and Stuart MacRae. There was a small case of handbags after the goal, but no penalties came of it. Due to a fumble by the Flyers' goaltender, Jeff Pierce managed to put the Devils up 3-0 all before fifteen minutes had passed.
Despite being down 3-0, Fife weren't giving up. After many botched attempts, Danny Stewart succeeded in getting his team their first goal, at 38:54. There were also several minor penalties, two at the same time for Cardiff resulting in a 5-on-3 that gave Fife their goal. However, this is nothing compared to what was happening in the BBT, where the ENL Devils were playing Invicta. It was said to be carnage in Cardiff, with fights all over the place, and many players getting thrown out; the second period was abandoned with three minutes left, but those were played after everyone calmed down. They went straight into third period after playing final three of the second period. In Fife, the second period ended 3-1 Devils.
After finishing the second period, unlike the ENL Devils, the Cardiff Devils were raring to go when coming out for the third. Despite this, the Flyers' managed to pull the game back to one goal, courtesy of Mike Hamilton, at 41:09. There were a few minor penalties throughout the period, but neither side could capitalise on the advantage. MOM Blair Daly looked like he had seen off the Cardiff Devils, until 53 seconds before the end of the period, when Scott Matzka slid a final Devils' goal passed him, making the final score Devils 4, Flyers 2.
It's nice to see the Devils winning in Scotland! Let's hope that the long trip home, on the 'blane' as Max calls it, doesn't make the guys too tired to play against the Steelers, in the BBT tomorrow night; FO is at 6pm. Let's Go Devils!
