Devils 2, Giants 3 - Final (Friday 3rd)
Devils 2, Giants 5 - Final (Saturday 4th)
Off to the land of Guinness travelled the Red Army this
weekend, as our Cardiff Devils battled the Belfast Giants. Coming off a fantastic four point
weekend in the Challenge Cup, the Devils were desperate to make the same
impression in their league campaign.
With Jaeger bombs flowing and balloons flying, the Red Army
were in high spirits (and not just from the amount of alcohol consumed on the
flight over!), only slightly disheartened by the narrow 3-2 loss on Friday
night. Despite a hard fought game,
silly penalties cost the Welsh side resulting in a last minute goal to give the
home side the win.
Saturday night saw a fan base raring for revenge, only to be
disappointed, as the Devils were defeated 5-2 after two third period shorthanded
goals.
Let’s just say: it was definitely a weekend of two halves.
Friday’s game was plagued with silly penalties and tired
penalty killers; despite each and every man in red playing his heart out, ill
discipline meant nil-point – a result that even the Giants’ fans were surprised
by!
While we can normally find fault in the EIHL officials (and
trust me, there were still faults this weekend), both sides have agreed (for
the most part!) that all calls made on Friday night were fair.
It has, however, been made known that there were some awful
non-calls for both sides.
When we did get the upper hand we were, as usual this
season, looking very dangerous (straight from the Giant’s mouth!) and have been
described as a joy to watch… how many opposing fans would actually admit to
that if it wasn’t true eh?
With fantastic goaltending between the pipes, with Bowns
having another sensational game, and a ‘superb’ forecheck, we really were
cheated out of those all important points, by our own silliness!
Saturday night told a completely different story. With 15 powerplay goals already this
season (in all competitions including Friday’s game), it’s a little surprising
that the boys weren’t able to slot home more than one goal on the ten powerplay
chances Dean Smith and Liam Sewell awarded during the Giants’ 5-2 win.
Fans from both sides of the crease have commented on the
lack of physical intensity demonstrated by the Devils on Saturday night,
whether the Trevor Hendrikx hole in the line up had anything to do with this is
unclear.
Unfortunately the talented D-man missed most of the action
this weekend due to a terrible case of the flu – we can all empathise with that
eh?
So with sore heads and voices galore, the Red Army bus was a
slightly (only slightly though!) quieter place to be as the Devils made the
long trip home. Hopefully the guys
will put this weekend behind us and build on the entertaining start to the
season, continuing to play the style of hockey we all love to see.
We (the figurative we, as I will be stuck behind a bar at
work L)
welcome the Hull Stingrays to the BBT on Saturday night (FO 7pm) for a
Challenge Cup match up… before heading up to the Coventry, ew, for a 6pm FO.
Make sure you are in the Bay this weekend, as the new owners
Steve King and Co. take in their first game – Let’s show them how we put on a
show!
