It was that time again, and the Red Army were out in force last
night as the Cardiff Devils ventured up to Nottingham to take on the third
place Nottingham Panthers. Coming off a
great week last week, with a win over both the Fife Flyers and the Hull
Stingrays, the Devils seemed ready to carry their momentum to Nottingham with
them.
The Welsh side didn’t hit it off in the best way, finding
themselves 2-0 down within six minutes.
With both Fox and Clarke scoring for the English side, it seemed like a
complete opposite of what most fans had witnessed in the England/Wales 6
Nations game earlier that day. Despite
the two goal deficit, the Devils’ managed to pull the Panthers’ lead back to
one, with a neat back door goal, assisted by Canadian Captain Stuart MacRae. No other goals followed in the opening twenty
and the intermission came with a score of 2-1 Panthers.
Things seemed to go from bad to worse as the second period
rolled around, with Nottingham pushing their lead up to 5-1 in the first ten
minutes. The onslaught of Panthers’
goals started just two minutes into the period, with a second from David
Clarke, who played with Devils’ starting tender Stevie Lyle on Tuesday night in
Lyle’s Testimonial game. The second came
just after 30 minutes (30.14) from Matt Francis, the third a minute later from
Brandon Benedict. Despite the serious
Nottingham advantage, the Devils’ managed to pull another one back, coming from
Scott Dobben in the dying minutes of the second.
Now onto the third, and either Gee gave an incredibly
inspiring pep-talk during the intermission or Dobben’s goal was earth-shattering,
as the Devils’ came out onto the ice with a new attitude for the final
twenty. Shown in the statistics by the
15-6 shots difference in the third, in favour of Cardiff, the Devils’ were
clearly determined to turn the tables.
And it looked to be working, when at just a minute twenty into the
period, Scott Dobben scored his second of the night, cutting the deficit to 2
goals, with a Panthers’ lead of 5-3.
With a further nineteen minutes left to play in the game, it seemed like
anything was possible for the Welsh side.
Unfortunately, despite the luck seeming to be on the side of
the Red Dragon, the Devils’ just couldn’t get the puck passed Panthers’
netminder, Craig Kowalski. Down at the
other end of the ice, the Devils’ D slipped one to many times and Beauregard
took full advantage to add a final Panthers’ goal to the final tally. The game finished with a final score of 6-3
to the Panthers’ and a disappointed Welsh side.
With all of Cardiff gearing up to watch the Carling Cup
Final, with hometown Cardiff FC facing Liverpool, tonight’s face off has been
delayed half an hour, so the Devils’ will now be facing the Hull Stingrays at
6.30pm, down at the BBT. Let’s get as
many people as we can down to the Bays to support our Devils! Let’s go Devils!
