Cardiff Devils 6 - 1 Coventry Blaze

Faceoff: 19:00 - 29/10/11

Cardiff Devils stormed to victory over their Coventry rivals in a crucial Challenge Cup game.

Captain Stuart MacRae returned from injury to the Cardiff team, who fell behind to an early Dustin Wood goal that beat Lyle low-down to his right.

That lead lasted barely a minute though, with the Devils equalising on the powerplay after Brad Voth had got to the bouncing puck first and forced it over the line.

Cardiff were increasingly putting pressure on the Coventry net, and their territorial advantage finally gave them the lead  a minute before the end of the period. Scott Dobben took the puck into the zone once again after passing it onto Max Birbraer, he picked out Jeff Pierce in the slot and his first-time shot beat Peter Hirsch.

Coventry started the second period brightly, but the more the period wore on the more Cardiff dominated again. A quick long pass from Gerad Adams set Pierce free and he faked the shot, spun 360 degrees before flicking the puck into the net on the backhand for one of the goals of the season.

The Devils then started to run into penalty trouble but successfully killed a series of penalties at the end of the second period and start of the third including nearly two minutes of 5-on-3.

WIth just over 10 minutes remaining the Blaze were given one final chance to get back into the game with another powerplay after a tripping penalty to Max Birbraer. Once again the defence stood strong though and when Ben Davies broke down the left wing, he passed the puck across to Stuart MacRae who took one touch before firing it through the netminder's pads.

With the Coventry players looking a beaten team the Devils added two late goals to give the scoreline a better representation of their dominance of the game.

First Ben Davies won a faceoff cleanly in the offensive zone allowing Kenton Smith to power a slapshot from the blueline that had nestled in the net before Hirsch had a chance to move.

Scott Matzka completed the rout when Kenton Smith set him clear and he beat the netminder with ease to give the Devils an emphatic and deserved 6-1 victory.