Win-win as Devils enjoy Euro success
ICE HOCKEY
IT was a double-winning weekend for the Cardiff Devils in Champions Hockey League action.
After an impressive win on Friday night over Czech side Mountfield HK, they beat Graz 99ers in a shoot-out on Sunday to stay on top of the group standings after two games.
Graz opened the scoring 4:05 into the game when Trevor Hamilton beat Ben Bowns just as a penalty to Charles Linglet expired. The Devils had two powerplay opportunities of their own to even the score in the first period, but Graz were up to the task and kept a blank sheet through 20 minutes of play.
The Devils tied the game up when Sean Bentivoglio slammed home a rebound off of a Linglet shot on goal to make it 1-1 at 23:50. Then, at 31:07, defenceman Mark Louis corralled a puck in front of the net and fired it low past Cristopher Nihlstorp in net for Graz to put the Devils up 2-1.
The visitors tied the game up at 35:44 after the Devils were caught up in their own zone for an extended period of time and not being able to change. With the Devils trying to clear the puck, Phillip Lindner kept the puck in at the blueline and wristed a shot through traffic that beat Bowns to make it 2-2.
But the Devils were not done yet and with less than two minutes remaining in the middle period, Matt Pope sprung loose for a breakaway that was stopped by Nihlstorp, but Pope picked up the rebound and backhanded the puck from behind the net onto the stick of Mike McNamee, who scored to put the Devils up 3-2 at 38:25.
The Devils looked like they were going to hold on for the win in regulation time, but back-to-back penalties called against them eventually saw the Graz powerplay score to tie the game at 56:48 courtesy of Hamilton’s second goal of the game.
The five minutes of overtime couldn’t decide this one, so it went to a shootout. It took seven rounds of shooters before anyone scored, but eventually Sean McMonagle got a goal for the Devils.
Then Bowns stopped the final shooter for Graz and the Devils and the near sold-out crowd at Viola Arena celebrated the Devils’ second win in a row in CHL action.
Earlier, the Cardiff Devils skated to a 3-2 win over Mountfield HK.
Despite trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes the Devils battled back to claim the win.
Mountfield opened the scoring at 12:47 of the first period when Radovan Pavlik finished off a pass from Mislav Rosandic to beat Bowns in net for the Devils. The visitors outshot the Devils 10-5 in the first 20 minutes, but the scoreline remained 1-0 after the first period.
The Devils’ powerplay took over midway through the second period scoring twice in less than a minute.
At 31:11, Blair Riley tied the game on a 5 on 3 powerplay with assists going to Pope and Linglet, then McNamee put the Devils up 2-1 at 32:04 with another powerplay goal, this time Linglet and Gleason Fournier getting the assists.
The Devils’ penalty-killing unit was on form, killing off a five on three advantage for Mountfield in the final minutes of the second period to boost the home crowd and the Devils’ bench.
At 45:03, the Devils extended their lead when McMonagle found Linglet for a breakaway. Linglet fired the puck low past Marek Mazanec in net for Mountfield to make it 3-1 with 15 minutes left to play.
Mountfield managed to pull a goal back with two seconds left in the game making it 3-2 to round off the scoring, but the Devils came away with the victory.