Canadian forward Matt Pope led Cardiff Devils’ quest to quell a Storm at Ice Arena Wales.

Former Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose player Pope scored a hat-trick in Devils’ 4-1 win against Manchester Storm in Cardiff Bay. 

Ben Blood was the other goalscorer for a home team who have now scored 29 times in five domestic fixtures at the IAW and conceded six.

Hat-trick celebrations 🎩🎩🎩 @poperov pic.twitter.com/4ENejLLDzJ

— Cardiff Devils (@cardiffdevils) October 6, 2018

Goalie Ben Bowns made 28 saves for Devils and their penalty killing was perfect, stopping all six man advantages for Storm.

Manchester opened the scoring after four minutes 29 seconds when Chris Auger finished off a pass from Shane Bakker to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The only goal of the opening period for the Devils came at 12-24 when Pope stepped around a Storm defender and fired the puck high over netminder Matt Ginn with Joey Martin drawing the lone assist to tie the game at 1-1.

Pope put Devils ahead three minutes into the middle period, finishing off a pass from Sean Bentivoglio and putting the home side up 2-1 at 23-19. 

Midway through the period Storm had a golden opportunity to get back into the game when Bentivoglio was given two minutes for hooking and two minutes for high-sticking on the same play.  

The result was a four minute powerplay for Storm, but Devils penalty-killing unit came up big to keep the visitors out.

Pope took a pass from Stephen Dixon and fired the puck backhand past Ginn for his hat-trick goal after at 36-34 putting the Devils 3-1 ahead.

Bowns stopped all 15 shots he faced in the final period and the only goal during those 20 minutes was netted by defenceman Ben Blood who rushed the puck up the ice, picked up  his own rebound and poked it past Ginn to put the Devils up 4-1 at 41-41.

Devils don’t have a fixture on Sunday evening and now make the trip to Sweden for Tuesday’s Champions League match at Vaxjo Lakers.

Match stats:

Scorers, Devils: Matt Pope 3+0, Ben Blood 1+0, Mark Richardson 0+2, Joey Martin 0+1, Ben Bowns 0+1, Stephen Dixon 0+1, Charles Linglet 0+1, Bryce Reddick 0+1.

Storm: Chris Auger 1+0, Shane Bakker 0+1, Marcus Basara 0+1.

Period scores (Devils first): 1-1; 2-0 (3-1); 1-0 (4-1).

Shots on goal: Devils (on Ginn) 11+8+8=27; Storm (on Bowns)10+4+15=29.

Penalties in minutes: Devils 2+6+4=12; Storm 2+2+0=4.

Special teams: Devils PK 6/6, PP 0/2; Storm PK 2/2, PP 0/6.

Stars of the game: Devils, Matt Pope; Storm, Chris Auger

Attendance: 2,986.

Referees: Stefan Hogarth, Liam Sewell.

SCORING LEADERS

RANK	PLAYER	POS	NUM	GP	G	A	P	PIM
1	Matt Pope	F	42	6	5	7	12	2
2	Joey Haddad	LW	27	6	1	7	8	6
3	Stephen Dixon	F	11	6	4	2	6	2
4	Mike Hedden	F	84	6	2	4	6	0
5	Joey Martin	C	88	6	2	4	6	2
6	Sean Bentivoglio	LW	85	6	2	3	5	8
7	Gleason Fournier	D	20	6	1	4	5	4
8	Charles Linglet	F	70	6	1	4	5	4
9	Craig Moore	D	29	6	2	2	4	2
10	Bryce Reddick	D	91	6	1	3	4	2

ELITE ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE 2018/19

TEAM	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PCT	GF	GA	PIM	STREAK
Nottingham Panthers	9	7	2	0	14	.778	31	22	127	3-0
Cardiff Devils	6	5	1	0	10	.833	27	12	48	3-0
Fife Flyers	4	3	0	1	7	.875	18	9	35	3-0
Coventry Blaze	5	3	1	1	7	.700	16	13	68	0-1
Belfast Giants	6	3	3	0	6	.500	22	17	62	2-0
Guildford Flames	5	3	2	0	6	.600	16	13	40	1-0
Glasgow Clan	6	3	3	0	6	.500	15	18	72	1-0
Dundee Stars	7	1	2	4	6	.429	18	22	97	0-3
Sheffield Steelers	8	3	5	0	6	.375	21	30	137	0-2
Manchester Storm	7	2	5	0	4	.286	13	23	177	0-2
Milton Keynes Lightning	7	2	5	0	4	.286	12	30	116	0-2

Devils fixtures in October:

Tuesday 9 v Vaxjo Lakers in Sweden (6.30pm, Champions League)

Saturday 13 v Dundee Stars (Ice Arena Wales, 7pm)

Sunday 14 v MK Lightning (away, 5pm)

Tuesday 16 v Vaxjo Lakers (Ice Arena Wales, 7.30pm)

Saturday 20 v Sheffield Steelers (Ice Arena Wales, 7pm)

Sunday 21 v Fife Flyers (Ice Arena Wales, 4pm)

MATCH TICKETS

Tickets for the 2018/19 season games are on sale now. 

CLICK HERE TO BOOK ONLINE or CALL 0800 0842 666 to book

CLICK HERE to be redirected to the full fixtures list.