Cardiff Devils @ Sheffield Steelers (CC) 27/09/2014, Cardiff Devils vs Nottingham Panthers (CC) 28/09/2014

Devils 3, Steelers 2 - SO Final

Devils 5, Panthers 2 - Final

Sheffield/Nottingham – 4^th Weekend

Back to back wins saw a voiceless Red Army after a fantastic four point Challenge Cup weekend for our Cardiff Devils!

Despite somewhat paranormal going-ons in the Sheffield Steelers’ first game in their Motorpoint Arena this season (due to crucial ice repairs), the Devils managed to come away with a 3-2 shootout win on Saturday night.  Matthew Myers scored twice to push his side through to overtime, before Jake Morrisette and Joey Martin fired the puck home, winning the shootout 2-0 to give the Devils that desperate extra point. 

The main event in the Steelers’ opening night was, of course, our favourite jazz-hand-using referee Tom Darnell!  Despite being confirmed as one of 12 UK officials to be officiating across international competitions over the next year, Darnell was up to his old tricks, allowing a very controversial goal for the Sheffield Steelers, allowing them to finish out the second period 2-1 up. 

Now, there have been many conflicting reports surrounding this ‘goal’ – some say (and these are Devils’ fans, not just Steelers’ fans) that it was definitely a goal, hitting the underside of the net and bouncing back out; others say that Darnell has simply lost what was left of his marbles and was up to his old tricks.  The justification behind the goal can be found here, thanks to Steelers TV: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JMNqEiszc4&list=PLdV17JtpLz4unlz0nY6bOhdrAJnXlCuP6

But, nevertheless, Myers levelled it up just 46 seconds from the end of regulation to force overtime.  And with no further goals in the extra five, the teams went to a shootout – you all know how that one ended!

Sunday saw a deflated Nottingham side travel down to the Bay after suffering a humiliating 6-1 home ice defeat to the Hull Stingrays, who are still missing Player/Coach Omar Pacha after he sustained a broken arm against Edinburgh earlier in the month. 

With the Northern side already missing several keys players, including Robert Farmer (foot) and David Clarke (shoulder), they did not need any more injuries to their already shortened bench.  Unfortunately for anyone with whiskers, Berube missed Sunday’s game, and was joined by Robert Lachowicz (ankle), Evan Mosey (undisclosed) and Brandon Benedict (confused? Possible arm injury, possible concussion.  Heard some very conflicting stories on this one), all of whom left the game early.

Whether it was due to increased ice time as a result of the smaller bench or a lack of confidence after the previous night’s loss (or, you know, Cardiff’s awesomeness!), the Panthers failed to play their best hockey and the Devils walked away with another 2 points, climbing to the top spot in CC Group B.

It seemed that bus legs and tired minds were a problem for last season’s Challenge Cup winners throughout the first period on Sunday.  Already missing some vital players from their line-up, the away team needed to give 110% for all 60 minutes in the BBT but it appears that several of the on-ice players were away with the fairies! 

With that in mind, it was still exciting to come home from work and discover in the 8 or so minutes I’d missed, we were already up by two!!  Luckily I was home just in time to witness Panthers’ newcomer Nathan Robinson (who we find out today is a budding artist as well!) being ejected from the game after ‘accidentally’ getting his stick tangled up in Player/Coach Andrew Lord’s face! 

Like with many things in this game we love, there is some controversy surrounding the severity of Robinson’s punishment.  While it is entirely possible (and extremely unlikely – this is Nottingham after all!) that #91 was slightly off-balance from a previous encounter with Lord, many believe that this was completely intentional; the 5+game awarded was slightly surprising though. 

The Panthers’ own account of the game (which can be found here: http://www.panthers.co.uk/content/spirited-effort-panthers-defeat-and-injury-woe-cardiff) describes the event as Robinson being targeting and retaliating to what was dished out to him…. I’m sure we can all make our own minds up on the situation, eh?

Additionally, the piece also comments on several of the injury sustained by the Panthers’ side on Sunday night.  The most interesting comment was surrounding the injury to Brandon Benedict; the Panthers’ website is reporting he was taken to hospital after a ‘check to the head’.  While they have not confirmed or disclosed any details about the injury, it is also being reported on the Steelers’ website that Benedict will be missing this weekend’s games due to concussion (http://www.sheffieldsteelers.co.uk/medical-staff-busy-for-both-steelers-and-panthers-p193844).  See why I’m so confused??  I guess it is just a case of watch this space for now…

The Panthers definitely seemed more awake after the first period break and some silly penalties for the Devils allowed them the space they needed to pull two goals back to bring them back within one going into the third period.  It definitely looked like things were looking up for the downtrodden side.

It was a case of who scores next wins… so thank the hockey gods for Andrew Lord!

With a spin-o-rama Crosby would have been proud of, Coach put the puck behind Kowalski (who, like most of the travelling team, was quite passive in the opening 20 before waking up and leading from the back for the rest of the game) and the game out of reach!  MOM Trevor Hendrikx added an extra tally to confirm the win and give the Devils those all important Challenge Cup points!!

This coming week sees the Red Army travelling across the Irish Sea to the Land of Guinness – Belfast beware!!  With Devils fans out in full force, it will be two incredible games so if you can’t make it to the O make sure you check out the webcast: https://live.belfastgiants.com// or the MNL: http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl to keep up to date with every thing that happens as our boys continue to fight it out for those crucial league points!

Cardiff Devils vs. Braehead Clan (L) 20/09/2014, Cardiff Devils @ Edinburgh Capitals (L) 21/09/2014

Devils 5, Clan 4 - OT Final

Devils 2, Capitals 3 - SO Final

It was specials goals galore this weekend as our Cardiff Devils faced off against two Celtic foes. 

Saturday night saw the return of several former Devils, including Ben Davies and Joe Myers (eek!!) to the BBT as Ryan Finnerty brought his Braehead Clan to town. 

Sunday saw a long trip across two borders to Murrayfield, where the Devils’ overcame the fatigue of the overtime win the night before to fight back from two goals behind, only to fall in the shootout 3-2. 

While bus legs were definitely a problem in the first period, the guys played a brilliant last 45 minutes of hockey.  They definitely had my heart in my mouth for the entire time, to say the least!

With over 100 PIMs (in total) across the two games this weekend, you’d expect there to be a few special goals… our boys took that one to the extreme!  With the exception of Joey Haddad’s beautiful overtime goal on Saturday, every single Devils’ goal was either on the powerplay or while at a disadvantage (I think I woke my little sister, I was yelling so much when Coach levelled the score with that shorthanded goal on Sunday night!).

Seems like whatever Franny and Lord are preaching to those units is definitely working this year!

This year’s team has been built with some incredibly well rounded players, who are able to switch between offence and defence as easily as they change socks, all while laying hits and taking (or giving!) punches when necessary!  This weekend we saw Dougie Clarkson at his best, until Chris Frank interfered.  We all know what No. 22 is capable of and it can (very rarely!) be useful – unless you are the opposition. 

After a dirty hit behind the away team’s net, Dougie handed Frank his behind in a fight that the Braehead defenseman failed to show up for!  Three hits from 93 put Frank down, but Dougie out; he did not return for the rest of the game and failed to ice at all on Sunday.

I think we are all waiting with baited breath for news on the big guy!

On the other hand, Hudson was also involved in some rough and tumble this week, although the poor guy was suckered into it.  After Zach Fitzgerald took offence to Hudson’s open ice hit on the Braehead captain Matt Keith (something ref James Aston also took offence to, giving Hudson a 5+match for checking to the head), the Scottish #13 sucker punched Carl, completely taking the defenseman by surprise – an extremely unfair fight by all accounts.

Fitzgerald was awarded 2 minutes for instigating plus 10minute misconduct and 5 minutes for fighting plus a game misconduct.

I, for one, was quite surprised when the Department of Player Safety decided to side with us, instead of going against us like usual, and removed any record of the incident from Carl’s record – allowing him back on the ice for Sunday’s match up against Edinburgh.

Sunday night definitely proved to be a less high-strung game against an improved Edinburgh side.  I’m not going to lie, the past couple of years, it has been almost painful watching the Scottish side but I have a feeling this year could be different.

They definitely proved they are a side to be reckoned with on Sunday!

Having missed the opening fifteen – technical fault! What can you do, eh? – I came into the game to see the Devils’ 1-0 down; I wasn’t too worried, everyone lets in a fluke every now and then. 

But after seeing Player/Coach Richard Hartmann’s goal to put the Capitals two goals up going into the second, I was actually nibbling the nails in apprehension!  Whatever the coaching pair said to the lads during the intermission seemed to take effect immediately – in my opinion, we were just plain unlucky not to get the winner after the guys levelled it up!

Throughout the entire last forty, the Welsh side pushed at Tomas Hiadlovsky but both net-minders were putting on one hell of a show – During the second period, the deficit could have been a lot worse, with Bowns pulling out some incredible point blank saves on the Capitals’ forwards.

And of course, we cannot forget Riley Emmerson…. Having just had his 10 game suspension reduced to 3 earlier in the week, and icing for his first game after serving his three game suspension, Emmerson spent most the game running his mouth at anyone who passed him – even ref Matt Thompson!

Emmerson also managed to get himself a 2+10 for checking to the head in the third period, ensuring that he took no part in the overtime period or penalty shootout, after squashing poor CJ between a rock and a hard place when his head was down.  No 26 continued to voice his opinions on his sentence from the penalty box whenever Thompson got too close!

 In the end, both sides deserved the overtime point but only one team could walk away with that precious extra tally. 

A three point weekend is not something to be snuffed at and I for one am definitely looking forward to next weekend’s fixtures, as the Challenge Cup race heats up with a trip to Sheffield, the Steelers’ first game in the Motorpoint after clearing up their icy problems, before the Panthers come to town on Sunday!  The lads will definitely be looking to take four points in the coming games to continue pushing towards one of those coveted trophies.  

Cardiff Devils @ Nottingham Panthers (L/CC) 13/09/14, Cardiff Devils vs Coventry Blaze (CC) 14/09/2014

Cardiff 1, Nottingham 3 - Final

Cardiff 4, Coventry 3 - Final

Good Evening!!!

Looks like we’ve had an interesting weekend of Cardiff Devils’ hockey gone by, after an unfortunate loss against the Nottingham Panthers on Saturday night in a joint league/challenge cup matchup – only for the boys to steam roll the Coventry Blaze in an exhilarating third period last night!

Throughout the entire 120 minutes of Devils’ hockey this weekend we’ve seen 11 goals, 134 PIMs, 1 bleeding referee and a bruised fan!  And, due to a mean boss who likes me to work all hours of the day and night, I’ve had a great day off catching up on everything that has happened over the past few days!

Saturday saw the Red Army make the long trip up to Nottingham, which, despite a valiant effort from everyone, ended 3-1 in favour of the home side.

Both sides saw a quick start to the game, with Panthers’ Bruce Graham driving a hole through the Devils’ defence after just over 6 minutes to put his side ahead, dropping the puck in the back of the net after picking up his own rebound.  However, it seems the cats’ whiskers were out of place just a few short minutes later as Chris Culligan evened up the score, gliding through the large space left open in the middle of the Panthers’ blue line, after Greg Jacina took an early trip to the penalty box for hooking.

Goal scorer Graham was quick to follow Jacina to the box for slashing but despite the Devils’ tremendous record on the powerplay this weekend, the score remained tied.  That is until Max Langelier-Parent (anyone else feeling sorry for the announcers on that one? Just me?) added another to the home side’s tally, giving them the advantage going into the second period. 

The second twenty saw plenty of bums on seats as Mike Hicks put his whisle to good use – handing out nearly half of the total PIMs for the night.  Unfortunately for the visiting fans, while the Devils have done extremely well so far on the penalty kill, the Panthers’ were able to steal the puck despite being a man down and Cody Wild managed to put the puck five-hole, scoring what would become the game winning goal with just under half the period remaining.

With tensions running high, we all kind of expected some handbags – it’s Nottingham after all!  While there were some roughing incidents early on (and I’m not just talking about Devils’ fan Helen Drane putting a dent in the puck with her arm!), the main event of the night was between Jesse Mychan and Charles Landry mid-way through the third.

After Landry decided Mychan was a bit to close to Craig Kowalski (who we all know can look after himself, usually in the dirtiest way possible), blood was shed, Landry was escorted off to be patched up and both players were awarded five for fighting with a direct ticket to the box – words all hockey fans love to hear, wouldn’t you agree?

In both games over the weekend our boys in reddy-green have demonstrated that they are a force to be reckoned with, whether we are playing with 5 skaters or not!  The special teams are something the guys have struggled with over the past few seasons; I distinctly remember someone comparing our powerplays to the disastrous Welsh lineouts from the 2012 6 Nations (remember those? Ouch!) but this year, it seems the tables are turning!!!

While many are insisting the Devils’ dominated from start to end against the Coventry Blaze last night, the score board showed a late turn in the team’s favour with a fantastic four-goal third period, three of which all happened in the space of 6 minutes!

As with many Cardiff-Coventry match ups, there were plenty of hits, chirps and all round nastiness.  Sunday’s game saw almost 90 penalty minutes awarded to the two teams – in total, not individually thank goodness!

And it wasn’t just the players getting a bit roughed up; referee Dean Smith was treated to a fat lip, thanks to the glove of Blaze no. 14, Cale Tanaka – wonder what that was about?!

The Red Army had plenty to cheer about throughout the game, especially with summer signing Doug Clarkson damaging the rink’s structural stability with Blaze-sized holes!  After a brilliant pre-season, Clarkson had a slow start in the opening weekend, possibly due to the lack of playing time he put in last year whilst recovering from injury, but came back to prove his metal this week against some of the toughest guys in the league.

To say that Blocks 2 and 3 enjoy watching Egener run and hide from the big Ontario native would be an understatement!

Thanks to Cescon and Goertzen, the Blaze were flying high going into the final period – despite being knocked down by each Devil that passed them.  Tensions were high but the home side did not disappoint.

As seems to be the fashion this year, the Cardiff boys fought hard for a comeback win that saw Coventry draw penalty after penalty – mainly because Brian Stewart couldn’t keep his hair on; he’s obviously never heard the phrase ‘sticks and stones’!  With three fabulous PPG to put the Welsh side in front, the Tent was rocking and looked like it was about to crumble as Jake Morrisette demonstrated why Player-Coach Andrew Lord fought to keep him in the Bay!

With just under four minutes left, Morrisette, with the help of Richardson and Martin (another great signing from the summer), ploughed his way through the Coventry defence and put the game out of reach.  While Jake was met with some doubts when he re-signed, there are no words to describe the beauty of his game winner last night!

Despite a last minute goal from a frantic visiting side, nothing could stop the Devils from finally claiming those well-deserved Challenge Cup points.

While we may have seen a topsy-turby weekend in way of results, I think we have seen the beginning of a beautiful campaign, in both the League and finally the Challenge Cup.  The constantly changing jigsaw has eventually come together and I think we are all liking the picture we are seeing!

Everyone enjoy your week and prepare yourselves for this coming weekend, as the Clan travel down to the BBT on Saturday as Cardiff continue their league campaign in style!!  Make sure you’re there so we can give Ben Davies, Joe Myers (yay!!!!) and even Chris Frank a big ex-Devils’ welcome!!!

Cardiff Devils vs Sheffield Steelers (CC) 07/09/2014

Devils 2, Steelers 3 - Final

This season, I'm going to do things a little differently. In the lead up to my hiatus, I felt my writing was getting a bit repetitive and I was therefore unable to give my best to the guys that play their hearts out every single game, entertaining long time fans and those who have only just joined our crazy world of flying rubber. And if they are giving their all every week, without fail, do they not deserve the same treatment from me?

So I’ve decided to write from my perspective, adding a personal touch to the game that means something different to each of us.  While I will still be covering the events of the game, it will be less of here’s what happened and more this is how I felt about what happened.  In order to give the guys the write up they deserve, I need to feel engaged in what I’m writing and hopefully this will provide what I’ve been missing these past couple of seasons.

Through various friends around the rink I'd heard a lot of good things about this year's team and I take great pleasure in saying these guys did not disappoint; we definitely saw the best style of Devils' hockey on Sunday!

It was great to see that we have a team who are ready to compete and play that physical style of hockey we all enjoy to watch.

While it is definitely sad that we had to say goodbye to so many fan favourites in the passing offseason, we must accept that when one door closes, another shall open, bringing with it a Devils' team I am proud to support!

Despite that, would it be wrong if I were a little bit happy to see G, Deeds and co back in the BBT?? Personally, I can’t wait to have Joe Myers back when we play Braehead – I am a little embarrassed to admit I once fan-girled when Joe favourited one of my tweets! It seems there will always be an excitable little girl in all of us , no matter how old we get!!

I must admit, I failed to keep track of the trades and tribulations this summer and barely recognised anyone on the roster when I checked the website just last week.

Having been surprised with tickets to the game on Sunday as a fabulous birthday present from the bestie, I wanted to re-immerse myself in the Devils' world - which definitely took a lot longer that I expected!

Initial research on the newcomers looked promising but the real thing simply blew me away. From Ben Bowns' incredible 2-on-0 save in the opening twenty to Chris Culligan's fantastic solo effort to even the score in the second, I was so happy to have hockey back!

Despite the blank score board at the end of the first period, I definitely had a difficult time finding fault in our new side.

With the Steelers' up to their usual tricks, Devils' both old and new held their ground superbly. As expected Sheffield were into double-figure PIMs before the end of the first, but our guys kept their heads down and plough[ed] through. In fact, the Devils' powered through with almost triple the amount of shots! The side in red was definitely very unlucky not to be up by at least one going into the period break.

Going into the second, I thought the pace had slowed slightly - that is until Jesse Mychan got the blood flowing. Not my blood of course, but that of Sheffield's no. 44 Matt Thomas!

While Tom Darnell made his usual song and dance (a shame to see some things haven't changed), awarding Mychan 2+10 for instigating, he did not succeed in quashing the fight in the Devils' spirits, both on and off the ice. We're all used to the controversial officiating in the EIHL and Sunday night was no exception - from bogus offside calls to outrageous tripping calls, we witnessed it all.

The theory (from the fans) behind me in Block 3 was that Darnell has a show coming up and wanted to practise his jazz hands!! In fact, Darnell was filling the penalty boxes so quickly, Devils' management nearly had to move the cameraman to allow enough room for everyone!!

But the heated seats in the penalty box didn't seem to do anything for Pascal Morency, who will probably be haunted by the phrase 'you got battered' for months to come after Sunday's game.

After taking a heavy beating from Trevor Hendrikx (swoon!), Morency was showered in abuse from the Red Army as he continued to lean across the timekeepers to chirp the 6'2" Ontario native. I was half expecting him to go at Hendrikx again as soon as they were out of the box, and, being completely wrapped up in the atmosphere, was slightly disappointed when he didn’t.

With blood spilled and tensions high, both sides eagerly awaited the third period. Having not experienced Devils' hockey for far too long, I was pleasantly surprised to find I could not sit still, constantly annoying the guy next to me with my excited fidgeting!

Both teams came out fighting in the last twenty minutes but it was clear that the home side were tiring and there was nothing left in the tank to push the home side level on the scoreboard.

With all the excitement through the game, we had barely noticed the one goal deficit but in the end its the goals scored, not the enthusiasm or dedication shown, that wins games.

I definitely wouldn't have changed the game for anything, it was brilliant watching our Devils' play like they used too! And it just means I will be badgering my boss for lots of time off so I can make it down to watch the game I love more often than last year! It is definitely worth the round trip!!