Action: Fife Flyers v Cardiff Devils. Goalie Ben Bowns keeps out the home team. Pic credit: Jillian McFarlane.

Devils Show Spirit Of Champions In Elite Away Win

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Fife Flyers 2, Cardiff Devils 4

Captain Jake Morissette and his Devils ‘clawed it out’ against Fife Flyers in Scotland and moved four points clear at the top of Elite League.

Cardiff Devils have eight fixtures left and return home to the Viola Arena this evening where they face Guildford Flames in another crunch match.

They came from a goal down to earn their third win in three League fixtures against Flyers in Kirkcaldy and Fife coach Todd Dutiaume said: “Devils run three or four lines and come at out in waves.

“Fatigue starts setting in a they found a few holes near the end.”

Joey Martin battles for possession against Fife. Pic credit: Jillian McFarlane

Gleason Fournier scored the winner at 54-05, firing Devils 3-2 ahead, and Sean Bentivoglio added an empty net goal to clinch the points.

“It was a really exciting game, a nailbiting, see-saw battle,” said Devils’ coach Andrew Lord. “We played hard, we played a simple, effective game. The guys clawed it out.

“I loved our character in the third when we found a way to tie it up, go ahead and earn a huge win.

“This was by no means our prettiest win, but a lot of that was down to Fife playing hard and the right way.” 

Goalie Ben Bowns again played a major role in Devils’ victory – and has set an Elite League goaltending record.

Devils’ Layne Ulmer on the charge against Fife. Pic: Jillian McFarlane.

He went well over three hours (192 minutes, 14 seconds) over the course of four games without conceding, which is the longest shutout.

Devils reacted after suffering back-to-back defeats against Belfast in Northern Ireland with wins against Glasgow (5-2), Coventry (2-0), Sheffield (6-0) and Fife (4-2).

Man of the match Layne Ulmer scored once and added an assist for Devils on a night when they showed the spirit of champions.

Devils penalty kill had to be sharp early in the first period after Charles Linglet was called for slashing just over one minute into the game.  

A second powerplay chance came and went for the Fife Flyers with another successful penalty kill on Ulmer’s hooking penalty at 7-49.

https://twitter.com/bownsy21/status/1103789598105313281

Devils had their own powerplay chance at 13-58 and took full advantage with Joey Martin feeding Evan Mosey at the back door. Mosey finished off the play with a nice shot past goalie Shane Owens to make it 1-0.

A rather quiet middle period looked like it was going to end with the Devils holding on to their lead, but with just over two minutes to play Basara tied the game for the Flyers to leave it all to play for in the final 20 minutes.

Fife came out flying in the third period, shocking the Devils by sneaking a backhand shot past Bowns to take a 2-1 lead just 24 seconds in thanks to Joe Basaraba.

A beautiful individual effort from Ulmer saw him dance through the Fife defence to tie the game at 46-25 with an unassisted goal.  

Then, at 54-05, Ulmer found Fournier, who circled out of the corner and fired the puck through Owens for the go-ahead goal, making it 3-2 for Devils with six minutes to play.

Fife had a golden opportunity to tie the game when Stephen Dixon was called for interference with less than two and a half minutes to play.

Flyers created some big chances and even opted to pull their goalie to give them a 6v4 advantage, but the move failed to pay off. 

Eventually, Joey Martin broke up the play in Devils zone and found Bentivoglio, who fired the puck into the empty net to make it 4-2.

Elite League fixtures on Friday: Belfast Giants v Glasgow Clan (7pm), Cardiff Devils v Guildford Flames (7.30pm).

Match stats (Fife v Cardiff):

Scorers, Flyers: Flyers: Marcus Basara 1+1, Joe Basaraba 1+1, Carlo Finucci 0+1, James Isaacs 0+1.

Devils: Evan Mosey 1+1, Layne Ulmer 1+1, Gleason Fournier1+0, Sean Bentivoglio 1+0, Joey Martin 0+2, Matthew Myers 0+1, Mark Louis 0+1, Michael Hedden 0+1, Mark Richardson 0+1.

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

Shots on goal: Flyers (on Bowns) 6+11+6=23;Devils (on Owen) 11+13+25=39.

Penalties in minutes: Flyers 2+-0+0=2; Devils 4+2+4-10.

Special teams: Flyers PK 0/1, PP 0/5; Devils PK 5/5, PP 1/1.

Men of the match: Flyers, Marcus Basara; Devils, Layne Ulmer.

Referees: Stefan Hogarth and Allan Ward.

Attendance: 954.

Elite League fixtures

Friday, March 8: Belfast Giants v Glasgow Clan (7pm), Cardiff Devils v Guildford Flames (7.30pm).

Saturday, March 9: Milton Keynes Lightning v Coventry Blaze (7pm), Nottingham Panthers v Dundee Stars (7pm), Sheffield Steelers v Fife Flyers (7pm).

Sunday, March 10: Dundee Stars v Manchester Storm (5pm), Coventry Blaze v Milton Keynes Lightning (5.15pm), Fife Flyers v Sheffield Steelers (6.30pm).

Sunday, March 10: Challenge Cup final, Belfast Giants v Guildford Flames at the Viola Arena, Cardiff Bay (4pm).

Tickets for the Challenge Cup Final are still available here.

Cardiff Devils 

Remaining 8 Elite League fixtures

Four home, four away

March

Friday 8 v Guildford Flames (home, 7.30pm)

Saturday 16 v Sheffield Steelers (away, 7pm)

Sunday 17 v Glasgow Clan (home, 6pm)

Wednesday 20 v Glasgow Clan (away, 7.30pm)

Saturday 23 v Manchester Storm (home, 7pm)

Sunday 24 v Dundee Stars (away, 5pm)

Saturday 30 v MK Lightning (home, 7pm)

Sunday 31 v Coventry Blaze (away, 5.15pm)

 

For Devils home tickets CLICK HERE TO BOOK ONLINE or CALL 0800 0842 666

CLICK HERE to be redirected to the full fixtures list.

ELITE ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE 2018/19

TEAM GP W L OTL PTS PCT GF GA PIM STREAK
Cardiff Devils 52 38 8 6 82 .788 208 132 597 4-0
Belfast Giants 52 38 12 2 78 .750 200 129 647 1-0
Glasgow Clan 53 30 18 5 65 .613 189 161 664 0-1
Nottingham Panthers 54 26 18 10 62 .574 166 170 878 1-0
Guildford Flames 53 27 21 5 59 .557 171 161 638 1-0
Fife Flyers 51 25 20 6 56 .549 165 172 702 0-2
Sheffield Steelers 54 26 25 3 55 .509 160 186 797 0-1
Manchester Storm 53 23 25 5 51 .481 156 183 1094 0-1
Dundee Stars 51 19 20 12 50 .490 144 174 512 1-0
Coventry Blaze 50 21 22 7 49 .490 175 193 661 0-4
Milton Keynes Lightning 51 14 33 4 32 .314 126 199 877 1-0

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