Cardiff Devils 4 - 1 Nottingham Panthers

Faceoff: 18:00 - 04/09/11

A Man Of The Match performance from netminder Stevie Lyle helped the Devils hit back after the previous nights disappointment to record their first win of the season.

Having fallen to a heavy defeat in Nottingham 24 hours earlier, Cardiff were keen to makes amends and started the game the brighter of the two teams. Craig Kowalski in the Nottingham net was the busier of the two netminders in the first period and only a series of spectacular saves kept the score at 0-0 at the end of the first period.

Having been dominated by the home team for much of the first period, the Panthers moved up a gear at the start of the second period and quickly broke the deadlock. A scramble in front of the Cardiff net eventually saw the puck make its way to David Clarke alone out front and he had time to control it before firing it past the helpless Lyle for the lead (21:14).

Having been a spectator for much of the opening 20 minutes, Lyle was then forced into several good saves of his own to stop the Panthers extending their lead further. Seconds later though, Sam Smith got the puck to Ben Davies who sped down the left wing before cutting inside and releasing his shot. Though Kowalski was able to block the shot, the rebound fell to Tim Burrows who forced the puck over the line from close range for the equaliser (22:28).

As the game started to become end-to-end, Cardiff had clearly been lifted by their goal and started to regain control. The Devils looked to have a great chance to take the lead with a two-on-one break only for a last ditch block by a Nottingham player to cut out Scott Matzka’s pass to the unmarked Jeff Pierce. Moments later they got a second chance, and this time when Matzka shot the rebound came back out to the onrushing Pierce and he quickly hit the puck back into the net with a one-timer (29:58).

Both teams had chances to add to the score but both netminders were in fine form, and when Guillaume Lepine did finally beat Lyle in the final minute of the period the puck pinged off the post and away to safety.

The frenetic pace of the game continued into the final period, with Cardiff having several chances to extend their lead but were unable to force the puck over the line when a goal seemed almost certain. As the match moved into the final ten minutes though it was Nottingham’s turn to raise their game in search of an equaliser. A combination of fantastic netminding and last ditch defending kept the Panthers out, though they did once again see a shot skim off the pipework to safety.

With four minute remaining, persistent hard-work from Matzka in the Panthers zone saw him twice force a save out of Kowalski, and when he got the puck back a third time he spotted Scott Dobben unmarked at the far post and he tapped in to give the Devils breathing-space (56:13).

That third goal was like a hammer-blow to the Nottingham team. Less than a minute later, Jeff Pierce picked up the puck in his own zone before going on a mazy run past several Nottingham players. It looked like he had gone too wide to shoot, but his quick release caught Kowalski out at his near post (57:01) to seal a deserved and hard-earned 4-1 victory for the Devils.