Devils disappointed after double defeat
IT was back to the drawing board for Cardiff Devils after losing both their games last weekend.
Andrew Lord’s side went down 5-1 at Coventry Blaze in the Challenge Cup, a day after losing 6-2 to Glasgow Clan in the Elite League.
Against Blaze, Devils started off on the wrong foot with a penalty called against them after just 11 seconds. After a successful kill, they were back in the box five minutes later and then found themselves killing a 5-on-3 penalty for just over a minute.
Blaze opened the scoring with a blast from Justin Hamonic that beat Ben Bowns at 12:43. They doubled their lead on the powerplay at 17:54 with Evan Bloodoff scoring.
Former Devil Drew Scheistel gave his new team a three-goal lead at 22:48 with another Blaze powerplay goal, then at 34:37 Andrew Johnston put the home side up 4-0, which is how the second period ended.
Devils pulled a goal back at 45:24 when Sean Bentivoglio slammed in a loose puck after a shot from Matthew Myers to make it 4-1. The Devils pressed hard and hit the post on another powerplay, but couldn’t score again.
With Ben Bowns pulled, Alex Forbes scored into the empty net to finish off the scoring and a 5-1 win for Blaze.
It was the first loss for Devils in the Challenge Cup competition, but they still remain on top of the group after three games played.
Meanwhile, three goals in three minutes in the middle period sealed the win for Glasgow Clan on Saturday in Cardiff.
Devils scored first on the powerplay when Sean Bentivoglio got the final touch on the puck after Matias Sointu threw it on the net at 12:36. Just over a minute later, the score was tied when Glasgow’s Matt Beca beat Ben Bowns at 13:47.
Glasgow took the lead at 22:55 when Craig Peacock batted in a rebounding puck past Bowns and Mac Howlett made it 3-1 to give the visitors a commanding lead.
But they weren’t done there, and at 25:52 Mathieu Roy put the Clan up 4-1 to cap off a three-minute burst that saw three goals for the visitors.
Clan extended their lead to 5-1 at 47:19 when Rasmus Bjerrum somehow got the puck over Bowns from a bad angle, but Devils immediately pulled one back through Sam Jardine’s wrist shot through traffic at 47:50.
Devils pressed for another goal, but couldn’t get anything past Patrick Killeen in net for Clan, who made 41 saves on the night, and the visitors added an empty-net goal at 56:46 to round off the scoring at 6-2.
Cardiff’s games this weekend sees them host Blaze in the Challenge Cup (7pm) before heading to Sheffield Steelers on Sunday (4pm).