Devils 3, Clan 7 - Final
Devils 3, Stars 1 - Final
Hi guys and girls!
What a topsy turby weekend, eh? Our lads were off above the border this weekend past, facing
off against the Braehead Clan and Dundee Stars with a large Red Army presence
singing loudly behind them!
Not only have we seen fabulous Facebook pictures but we also
had a fabulous scoreline against Dundee on Sunday, both of which almost
managing to clear up the stink from an unfortunate loss on Saturday in
Glasgow.
After an amazing eighteen-goal weekend last weekend, we were
all (or at least I was) shocked to see our boys go down seven goals to three
against Ryan Finnerty and his Braehead Clan.
Stefan Meyer, Derek Roehl and Neil Trimm started off the
scoring for the Scottish side in the first period, with both Meyer and Trimm
scoring on the man advantage. They
also rallied to add two more as the second period ticked on, before the Devils
got themselves into gear.
With Meyer scoring his second at 27:42 and Scott Pitt added
his first of the night five minutes later, a fire was lit beneath the visiting
side, with captain Tyson Marsh opening the Welsh scoring at 35:33, assisted by
Brent Walton and Mark Richarson.
Richie followed this up with a goal of his own a few minutes later to
keep the deficit at three going into the third.
The Braehead scoring continued in the opening minute of the
final twenty, as Derek Roehl added his second of the night, increasing their
lead to four goals, just thirty five seconds after the start of the period.
Andrew Hotham continued to give the travelling Red Army hope
of a comeback, as he fired one home to decrease the deficit once again with
just over ten minutes left in the game, but Scott Pitt put any chance of a
Welsh win to bed with his second goal just 15 seconds later.
With sore heads and heavy hearts, the Red Army toddled on to
Dundee, where those of us that were left at home were treated to a free
webcast! I was certainly excited
at this prospect and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the webcast; the commentators
were top-notch and I can’t wait to see more later on in the season.
Like in Braehead the night before, the Stars organisation
allowed the singing of the Welsh national anthem; in both rinks, this was
certainly a gesture that did not go unappreciated.
The boys were certainly fired up for their final game of the
weekend and, despite missing player/coach Andrew Lord and (I think) Trevor
Hendrikx, the Cardiff Devils were taking no prisoners. Also missing from the ice for the home
side were Chris Blight and John Mitchell.
Joey Martin kicked off the scoring for our boys in red, with
just over ten minutes played.
Despite good forechecking on both sides, the score remained at 1-0 going
into the second period, where Igor Gongalsky added an equaliser for the home
side whilst on the powerplay at 21:50.
It was all tied up at one a piece going into the final
period and it was clear that the next goal was crucial. And that goal came with ten minutes
left, a beautiful coast-to-coast bruiser scored by our very own Joey Haddad!
With momentum in our favour, it wasn’t surprising to see the
amount of Devils’ shots increase.
Stars’ netminder Marc Cheverie certainly deserved his Man of the Match
award!
Finally, alternate captain Jake Morrisette added that all important
goal to seal the Devils’ win with just over two minutes remaining – giving the
Red Army something else to sing about on the way back down to Wales!
Bringing home 2 points this weekend, the Devils now look
forward to the coming challenge – a two-game home stand against Adam Keefe and his
Belfast Giants. It’s sure to be a
hell of a weekend, and will unfortunately be my last weekend before Christmas! It will certainly be a hell of way to (temporarily)
sign off!
So get your jerseys dusted off and get down to the Bay,
because our guys are going to need everyone pulling for them!
Let’s Go Devils!
