Devils star Martin in award-winning form

CARDIFF Devils forward Joey Martin has been named as the latest winner of the Elite League Player of the Week award.

The 30-year-old, in his fifth season at the club, scored four goals and picked up an assist as Cardiff returned to domestic action, beating Nottingham Panthers 3-2 in the league on Saturday, coming from 2-0 down, with Martin scoring the winner.

Then Devils romped to a 9-1 success over Milton Keynes Lightning in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, with the Canadian scoring a hat-trick.

And he admits, after starting the season on duty in the Champions Hockey League, there can be some adaptation required when returning to the bread and butter of the Elite League.

“Going from the CHL back to domestic games does need an adjustment,” he said. “It’s a different style of play and we have more time on the puck in this league because it’s faster elsewhere.

“A lot of us made that adjustment last year from the CHL and we kind of knew what to expect.

“Looking ahead, I think we have to be consistent and that’s the biggest challenge. There are more games so it’s going to be more of a test bringing our ‘A’ game every night.

“Other teams will bring their best against us. We brought back a lot of guys last year and managed to stay consistent, which gave us success. Hopefully we can do the same going forward this season.”

And he reflected on the two games that saw two wins for the Devils in front of home crowds on both nights.

He added: “Saturday’s win was a great one for our team, with us being two goals down going into the third and it was a nice comeback in front of our crowd.

“I think we had our chances throughout the game and they have a good team, but we remained confident and kept our composure.”

“Then on Sunday in the Challenge Cup, we took advantage of a lot of our chances and a lot of guys saw the scoresheet which was good.”