Cardiff Devils 4 - 3 Coventry Blaze

Faceoff: 18:00 - 25/03/12

Cardiff Devils finished their league season off with a win against their nearest and biggest of rivals.

In a physical and frantic first period, it was the Devils who showed that extra bit of quality to take an early lead. Stuart MacRae skated through the Blaze defence and after his first shot was saved, quickly picked up the rebound before rounding Peter Hirsch and sliding the puck into the net for the opening goal after less than two minutes.

Four minutes later and Cardiff had doubled their lead. Ben Davies stole the puck along the boards, allowing Mark Richardson to pick out Jeff Pierce at the far post and he one-timed it onto the roof of the net.

The Devils were flying and in danger of running away with it, but against the run of play Coventry quickly got themselves back into the game. Shea Guthrie showed a good turn of pace to get behind the Cardiff defence and fire the puck past Stevie Lyle.

The first period continued to be played at a frenetic pace with the action moving from end to end. After Woo-Sang Park had been called for tripping Pierce, Bryan Jurynec was giving an additional two minutes after appearing to skate into the helmet of Pierce as he lay on the ice.

It gave the Devils a 5-on-3 powerplay and after patiently moving the puck around, Scott Dobben let rip with a slapshot that was past Hirsch before he had moved.

Starting the second period with their two goal lead restored, Cardiff went close to extending their lead further with several shots pinging the posts only for Blaze to score the next goal on a powerplay.

Despite the setback it was the Devils who were still looking the better of the two teams. Seconds after Coventry had come close to scoring an equaliser, Cardiff counter attacked quickly and Phil Hill’s low shot went straight through Hirsch to make it 4-2.

Early in the third period the Blaze had another powerplay opportunity and once again they made it count. Dustin Wood firing the puck through traffic after the Devils had failed to clear the danger.

In the final minutes Coventry had a great chance to equalise only for Guthrie to somehow flick the puck over the gaping net when it looked easier to score. With time running out, Coventry pulled their netminder for the extra skater but it was the Devils who should have scored. After stealing the puck along the boards, Stuart MacRae skated away with the puck but as he was about to shoot the game was halted due to Coventry having 7 players on the ice.

The Devils were understandably upset that play had not been allowed to continue, but it wasn’t to matter as they comfortably saw out the remaining 24 seconds to seal the 4-3 victory.