Devils 4, Giants 1 - Final (Saturday)
Devils 5, Giants 3 - Final (Sunday
Four points… against Belfast… the defending Elite League
champions… enough said, right?
.
.
.
Only kidding!
Nine goals, 4000 spectators and no Mike Hicks! Can things get any better for us Devils’ fans right
now?!
I was definitely one happy member of the Red Army as I
watched our guys claim four precious league points from the defending League
Champions, the Belfast Giants.
Now, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly nervous before
Saturday’s game but the Devils certainly pulled out all the stops to
demonstrate just how serious they are about their Elite League campaign this
year!
Saturday night saw a complete Cardiff Devils’ roster face
off in front of a crowd of more than two thousand fans, as the Red Army came
out in force – probably because they heard about the clappers being given out
on entry!! (Yes, I’m secretly jealous I didn’t get one! The downside to watching the webcast
instead of making the two-hour journey to the Bay!)
Surprisingly, we had no fighting majors recorded this weekend
– unfortunate I know! Last time we
engaged in a double header against the reigning champions, over in the Land of
Guinness, we saw Josh Batch giving Giants’ captain Adam Keefe a taste of his
own medicine, drawing blood from the pain we all hate to love. While both sides seemed just as physical
this time round, tempers were mostly in control.
Despite that, we did see a bout of handbags in the opening
period, after a hit from Trevor Hendrikx (who else, eh?). We had some hugs and a little of
dancing side to side between Hendrikx and Kompon, before ex-NHLer Kevin
Westgarth got himelf involved.
Now I was sure Westgarth was going to get third man in;
considering I’m usually rubbish at spotting third man in, I thought it was
completely obvious! But, alas, our
refs apparently did not think so… In fact, Westgarth was treated to a four
minute roughing penalty, while Josh Batch, who jumped in to defend his
defensive partner, sat for two.
Shortly after, alternate captain Jake Morrisette officially
opened the scoring at 18:48, with his twelfth goal of the season. I say officially, because the Giants
were unfortunate to have a very early goal disallowed.
After a hard fought first period, the Devils’ carried their
one goal lead into the second, where they managed to double their lead just
over half way through – coming from Joey Martin, who also scored his twelfth
goal of the season!
Colin Shields managed to pull one back for the visiting
side, assisted by Robby Sandrock and Craig Peacock, at 31:44. This seemed to revive the Irish side
slightly, finishing the period strongly.
Going into the third, tensions were high. With the BBT rocking, both sides were
definitely putting on a show, especially between the pipes. While the two teams battled in the
neutral zone, Ben Bowns and Carsen Chubak stood on their heads in a competition
to see who would be the first to fall.
As seems to be the way when these two teams come together, it was the
visiting fans that were to be disappointed.
His offense struggling to come up with the goods, it was up
to Carsen Chubak to keep his team in the game and for the most part, he did
extremely well. But as the game
wore on and legs began to fail, Chubak slipped and Matty Myers was there to
take advantage, not once but twice!
With Sawada and Hendrikx in the box after another round of
handbags, things were heating up.
But Myers was unfazed as he shot the puck past the Giants’ goaltender,
first on 4-on-4 play and again ninety seconds later whilst on the man advantage
after Robby Sandrock was sent to the box for high stick.
After such an explosive ending, is it any wonder that the
BBT was mayhem on Sunday, with even more of the Red Army piling in to see all
of the action?!
Like Saturday, it was unclear before faceoff, which way the
game was going to go. Many
expected the Giants to come fighting, desperate for revenge after falling 4-1
the previous night. However, it
was the Devils that came out raring.
And raring they were!
With just four and a half minutes played, Joey Haddad added his
thirteenth goal of the season to give his team the early lead. While the game had been end to end for
the opening minutes, the Devils had been pressurising Chubak and it was only a
matter of time before he let one slip.
Not even a minute later, Jesse Mychan, with his family
watching all the way over in Canada, had a brilliant breakaway opportunity to
double the lead, but was interfered with, earning himself a penalty shot! Unfortunately Chubak read him like a
book and was able to get down before Jesse could shoot the puck through his
legs.
But never mind – Brent Walton, who was one of four players
sitting on twelve goals for the season so far, could not be out done by Haddad
and also added his thirteenth goal to give the Devils’ a two-nothing lead with
only five minutes played!
With things looking bad for the visiting side already, Coach
Thornton used up his time out early, giving his players a quick break to
evaluate their position. But it
must have been hard to make himself heard as the volume continued to increase
as the Red Army got into full swing!
Frustrated as they were, the Giants were struggling to find
the offensive strategy to decrease the deficit. Most of their shots were coming from outside of the zone and
even Adam Keefe could not goad Jesse Mychan into a bit of rough and tumble –
Jesse just laughed!
Normally both extremely physical teams anyway, it seemed
impossible for the hits to get bigger, harder or even more bruising! Belfast were definitely taking out
their frustration on any in black that moved, but the home side was not going
to take it lying down – big checks were coming from every line on both sides
and it was extremely surprising that we did not see any gloves flying from
either side.
But the Giants’ desperate efforts were rewarded with just
over seven minutes left in the opening period when, with Andrew Hotham in the
box for slashing, Ray Sawada managed to push the puck under Bowns to make it a
one-goal game. There was some
controversy over the goal, with the assisting player, Kompon, playing the puck
with a broken stick, but Matt Thompson gave a good goal.
It seems all the Devils’ wanted in the scoring action
tonight, as Joey Martin added a third Devils’ goal, at 16:37 (with Darryl Lloyd
in the box – surprise, surprise), giving him thirteen goals for the season so
far! When they say hockey teams
are close, it seems they do actually do everything together!
To round off an extremely eventful period, Adam Keefe
managed to grab another goal for his team, giving them a slight confidence
boost going into the second period of what has become an extremely close game.
It was this confidence that saw them camped out in the
Devils’ zone at the beginning of the second period, forcing long shifts for
both Hendrikx and Batch and Bowns to put on the show of his life! We definitely saw some highlight-reel
material from both goaltenders this weekend.
With the pushing and shoving at an all time high, it was
only a matter of time before someone was sent to the box. And there were several penalties that
went by without any definite chances for either side. It wasn’t until Brockwell was sent to the box for delay of
game with just over ten minutes left to play that things got interesting.
With only one goal in it and both sides playing a tight
game, it was definitely the case that the next goal was crucial in turning the
tides. And unfortunately for the
ruckus that was the Red Army, Jeff Mason managed to slot on in shorted handed
to give the Giants the boost they needed, tying the game for the first time.
Tensions continued to build as the second ticked away but
the score remained the same going into the final period.
But despite a show of tired legs at the end of the second
period, the Devils were certainly not down and out! With just a minute and sixteen played, Andrew Hotham added
his eighth goal of the season to give the Welsh side the lead once more.
And to finally round off the scoring for the evening, with a
beautiful sniper shot from the wing, player-coach Andrew Lord showed us all how
it is done, celebrating the win by pulling on the emblem on the front of his
jersey! Team pride is definitely
what we like to see!!
With the fifth Devils’ goal coming with over ten minutes
still to play, the Giants were desperate to get themselves back in the
game. Tempers were running high as
Giants swiped at Devils and at themselves! Things only got worse as they had their second goal of the
weekend disallowed for offside.
After using his timeout so early in the game, all Steven
Thornton could do was stand behind the bench and watch as his player
desperately tried to decrease the deficit. He pulled Chubak with less than two minutes to go, giving
his side the extra man but the Devils had the crowd on the ice with them and
nothing was going to get through.
Unfortunately for Darryl Lloyd, our boys in black were
certainly feeling the energy in the BBT, as Tyson Marsh ploughed the Belfast
no. 72 into the boards. Lloyd was
slow to get up and had to be helped from the ice, although he did leave on his
feet – So did Tyson, for that matter, when he was given a 5+Game for
boarding. Hopefully we won’t see
too many repercussions from that, and we hope that Darryl Lloyd is okay.
Despite the Giants’ six on four advantage for the final
thirty five seconds, the game was finished and the Red Army cheered for a
fantastic four point weekend!!
So after an amazing weekend against the defending Elite
League Champions, the Devils now look ahead to next weekend, as they face off
against two of the top teams in the league this year. Friday night sees a 7:30pm game against the Sheffield Steelers
in Tin Town, before they return home to rest up on Saturday to face off against
the league-leading Braehead Clan on Sunday!
Make sure you don’t miss a minute of the action this
weekend!
Unfortunately for me, this is my last post until after
Christmas now, so I certainly wish you all a Happy Hockey Christmas!!!
Let’s Go Devils!!
