The Devils came back from three goals down to beat the Fife Flyers in a shootout on Saturday night in the first of two games in Scotland this weekend for the Devils.

It didn’t take long for the home side to get on the board, with Colin Shirley opening the scoring for the Flyers at 3:32 after he banged in a rebound after an initial save by Tyler Wall on Drake Pilon.  The Devils outshot the Flyers 17-10 in the first period but could not find a way past Shane Owen in the Fife net.

The Flyers doubled their lead on the powerplay with Cody Donaghey sitting for cross-checking early in the second period through Max Humitz who beat Wall at 24:05 to make it 2-0.  Cole Sanford was called for cross-checking at 31:37 and once again the Flyers’ powerplay converted to extend their lead, this time through Teemu Pulkkinen at 33:12, making it 3-0 for Fife.

The Devils finally got on the board with a powerplay goal of their own at 35:39 when Trevor Cox threw a rink wide pass to a streaking Jamie Arniel who beat Owen to make it 3-1.  Late in the period and again on the powerplay, Brandon Alderson outmuscled the Fife defenders to slam home a pass from Cole Sanford in tight to the goal and make it 3-2 at 38:28.

Just over 4 minutes into the third period the Devils tied the game when Josh Batch took a pass from Bode Wilde and skated into the Fife zone.  He dropped the puck to Joey Martin who fired it over the shoulder of Owen to make it 3-3 at 44:22.

A strange play led to a fifth goal for the Flyers when the puck bounced strangely off the back boards and Wall poked the puck out of the way but right onto the stick of Drake Pilon who put it between Wall’s legs for an unassisted goal at 50:57.   

With just over 5 minutes to play, Ryan Barrow placed a perfect pass to the front of the Fife net and Arniel flew in and re-directed it past Owen to tie the game with 5:07 to play in regulation.

Neither team scored in the dying minutes of the game, so it headed into overtime.  The Devils had the better chances in extra time, but just couldn’t find the game winner so this one headed into a shootout. 

Cole Sanford scored on the opening shot for the Devils, then after that Tyler Wall stopped all 5 shooters for Fife.  Owen stopped the rest for the Devils, but Sanford’s goal was enough to give the Devils the win.  Wall finished with 37 saves plus 5 more in the shootout and Jamie Arniel picked up Man of the Match for his two goal performance. 

Photos courtesy of Jillian McFarlane