Belfast Giants 2, Cardiff Devils 3
Cardiff Devils earned a third successive away win against Belfast Giants at the SSE Arena.
Coach Andrew Lord and his players dumped Giants out of the Challenge Cup semi-finals, winning 5-1 in the second leg, and then earned back-to-back victories in Elite League.
Devils won 4-3 on Friday and followed that with another single goal success. The wins lifted them seven points ahead of second-placed Belfast.
Joey Martin was Cardiff man of the match, while their goals were from Guillaume Doucet, Patrick Asselin and Andrew Hotham.
First period
Sniper Doucet fired Devils ahead after four minutes 25 seconds, scoring into the roof of the net from Joey Martin’s sublime pass. Andrew Lord started the attack and then Martin took over, skating in front of the net before slipping a backhand pass between the legs of Belfast D-man Derrick Walser.
Doucet was perfectly placed to fire home.
Devils had two 5v3 powerplays, one for 45 seconds and the second for 15. Giants picked up five minor penalties during the first period, four for tripping and one for slashing.
Home goalie Stephen Murphy made an outstanding save from Layne Ulmer just before the period break.
Sean Bentivoglio suffered a cut early in the game and was sitting on the bench for a lot of the period. That meant Cardiff have to reshuffle their lines with Doucet joining Martin and Lord.
Doucet had started alongside Denny Kearney and Matthew Myers, but that had to change when Bentivoglio suffered a cut.
Chris Culligan sat out the game with Doucet recalled, while Matt Nickerson returned for Giants.
All the Devils players were dressed and out on the ice for the warm-up before it became clear that Culligan would sit this one out.
Devils outshot Giants 12-3 in the first period.
End of first: Giants 0, Devils 1.
Second period:
Asselin doubled Cardiff’s lead when he netted on a powerplay after 21-19 with Layne Ulmer and Andrew Hotham helping out.
But the visitors ran into penalty trouble and it was Blair Riley who scored a powerplay goal after 35-48 and David Rutherford levelled the scores at 2-2 from a penalty.
Devils were facing another PP when Andrew Hotham went down and covered the puck with his glove in the crease. That had to be called for a penalty shot and Rutherford deceived goalie Ben Bowns to score.
Ryan Martinelli and Cardiff’s Lord went toe-to-toe just after 31-28. That was pretty even with both players landing big punches. They were both five five minute penalties.
There was more trouble ahead and Matthew Myers was given a 10-minute penalty for delay of game because he didn’t get on with things quickly enough.
Giants hit back in the second, outshooting Devils 17-10, making the overall total after 40 minutes 22-20 in Cardiff’s favour.
End of second: Giants 2, Devils 2.
Third period:
The winner was scored by Andrew Hotham on a powerplay after 41-53.
Devils were composed as Giants grew more and more frantic in their efforts to earn some reward from the game.
But Cardiff earned a second victory in two nights and extended their lead at the top of Elute League to seven points.
The game ended in a mid-ice brawl. Goalie Ben Bowns and D-man Andrew Hotham were among those involved along with a um her if Giants players. Home back-up netminder Andrew Dickson came off the bench to confront Bowns and they tangled before referee Stefan Hogarth calmed things down.
But referee Hogarth did not appear to hand out extra penalties.
Match stats:
Scorers, Giants: Riley 1+0, Rutherford 1+0 (PS), Luduc 0+1, Higgins 0+1.
Devils: Doucet 1+0, Asselin 1+0, Andrew Hotham 1+1, Ulmer 0+2, Andrew Hotham 0+1, Martin 0+1, Lord 0+1.
Period scores (Giants first) 0-1; 2-1 (2-2); 0-1 (2-3).
Shots on goal: Giants (on Bowns) 3+17+8=28; Devils (on Murphy) 12+10+10=32.
Penalties in minutes: Giants 10+7+4=21; Devils 0+25+14=39.
Powerplays: Giants 1/6; Devils 1/7.
Referee: Stefan Hogarth.
Attendance: 4,851.
Men of the match: Giants, Steve Saviano; Devils, Joey Martin.