Heartbreaking end to Devils’ Champions League campaign

THERE was a heartbreaking end to Cardiff Devils’ Champions League campaign as they were so close to a first win of the season in Europe once again.

This time it was a goal with 42 seconds left of overtime that gave Swedish champions Vaxjo Lakers a 6-5 success at Ice Arena Wales.

The Lakers got off to a great start with a goal at 4:17 from Liam Reddox, and a powerplay goal from Linus Froberg gave the visitors a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes.

An unassisted goal from Karl Johansson put Vaxjo up 3-0 just over two minutes into the middle frame, but after that, the Devils took over for the rest of the second period.

At 29:51, Layne Ulmer took a pass from Joey Haddad and got the Devils on the board. Then Vaxjo’s Andersson was given four minutes for boarding and the Devils powerplay went to work, with Joey Martin tipping in a shot from Gleason Fournier at 31:18.

The Devils stayed on the powerplay and a perfect passing play between Sean Bentivoglio and Mike Hedden was finished off by Stephen Dixon to tie the game 3-3 with 20 minutes to play.

Lakers scored after just 21 seconds of the final period through Janne Pesonen, but the Devils tied it up with their third powerplay goal of the game and second on the night for Ulmer with a tip-off of a Matt Pope shot at 42:31.

At 48:40, Cardiff forward Charles Linglet was called for hooking, but it was the Devils who took the lead when Martin scored short-handed at 49:09 to put the Devils up 5-4.

In a tense finish, Devils killed a 5-on-3 Lakers advantage, but, back to even strength, with 2:35 left in the period, Joel Persson scored on a breakaway to tie the game at 5-5 to force the game into overtime.

It looked like the extra period was going to end without a winner, but, with 42 seconds left, Joel Persson fired the puck home.