Hull Stingrays 3 - 5 Cardiff Devils

Faceoff: 18:00 - 18/12/11

A third period surge by the visiting Devils ensured they completed a 4-point weekend and a third straight win but for Stingrays the slump goes on – now seven losses on the bounce.

Devils had more of the play in the opening period but could not shake of the home side. Both teams scored late on with Kenton Smith firing Devils ahead at 17.13 on the powerplay only for Jereme Tendler to level for Stingrays 31 seconds later and then Dominic Osman edged the home side ahead with only 9 seconds of the period remaining

The second session saw Devils tie it up after 63 seconds with Phil Hill on target but Tendler – on a hot scoring streak right now – shot Stingrays ahead again at 25.33.

That’s how it remained right up to the end of period two, with clearly all to play for in the third session.

Devils took the initiative early on and tied it at 3 after only 4.22 with a counter from skipper Stuart Macrae on the powerplay. The visitors were now going for it and at 50.28, again on the powerplay it was Chris Frank who scored what proved to be the game winner with Scott Matzka scoring the insurance goal at 57.35

Devils bench Coach Neil Francis commented:

'A good character win especially as we were down to playing with 6 imports for the majority of the game. The work we have been doing on our PP paid off with 3 out of 4 powerplays converted which will give the guys a big boost ahead of fridays game. The defense were again outstanding especially considering the amount of ice time they are logging lately. There was great team spirit evident tonight which again is encouraging going into friday's game'

Period Scores: 2-1, 1-1, 0-3
Penalty Mins: Hul 13 – Car 23
Powerplay: Hul 0/4 – Car 3/4
Shots On: Christian Boucher 46 – Stevie Lyle 20
Referee: Michael Hicks