Nail-biting finish as Devils claim their trophy double
27 years ago, there was agony and ecstasy as Cardiff Devils claimed the Heineken Ice Hockey Championship with a sudden death shoot-out victory over Murrayfield Racers at Wembley Arena...
THE Devils’ joy was unbounded as they climaxed their first season in the Premier Division by becoming only the second club to claim a league and championship double.
But the players, the fans at the arena and the thousands watching the game on TV in Cardiff had to endure an unforgettable nail-biting climax as the teams could not be separated in normal time or during 10 minutes of overtime.
Cardiff manicurists could be out of work for a month – for only the toughest onlooker did not bite their nails down to the quick as the Devils triumphed 6-5 in the penalty shoot-out which followed.
Goalminder Jeff Smith was Cardiff’s hero, stopping a penalty attempt by GB star Tony Hand after Doug McEwan slipped in Cardiff’s sixth.
But he had mixed emotion about the way Cardiff clinched the title.
Like many other, he felt a penalty shoot-out was an unsatisfactory way to decide British Ice Hockey’s showpiece final: “I know I would have been distraught if I had been Martin (McKay) to have lost in that
way. Devils player manager John Lawless was full of praise for the way referee Nico Toemen had handled the game. “We knew what Nico was doing,” he said. “We knew he was gonna call the odd punch in the head.” As Jeff Smith said: “Look at the last time we played Murrayfield, look at the penalty minutes and look at the score (12-4 to Murrayfield), you’ll see that Murrayfield were the protagonists.” One of the architects of the victory was Ian Cooper, who had to endure the agony of missing a penalty and suffering an injury before he was able to lift the Heineken Trophy.