Former Devils captain Ryan Finnerty and his Manchester Storm team are emerging as the biggest challengers to Cardiff in the chase for Elite League glory.
Devils crashed 7-2 at Nottingham Panthers and Belfast Giants slumped 4-2 at home against bottom club Edinburgh Capitals, while Storm eased into second spot.
They are ahead of Giants thanks to an eighth successive League win, beating MK Lightning 4-1, and nine points behind leaders Devils, who also have a game in hand.
Fife Flyers won 7-0 against Dundee Stars and have three games in hand on Cardiff, although the Welsh club are 13 points ahead of the Scots.
Panthers fired seven goals against Devils in front of a sold-out Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham.
“We had great goaltending from Michael (Garnett), while Bownsy (Ben Bowns) probably had a rough one for Devils,” said Panthers coach Corey Neilson.
“We defended hard with a lot of guys putting bodies on the line.”
The home team jumped out into a 2-0 lead during the first period with back to back goals from Robert Lachowicz at seven minutes 52 second and 14-51.
Devils pulled a goal back in the dying seconds when former Panthers forward Matthew Myers scored on the powerplay to cut the lead to 2-1.
The middle period was all Panthers and they scored three times to put the game out of reach. Brett Perlini (24-05), Zack Phillips on a powerplay (31-10) and Luke Pither (34-18) swept Panthers into a 5-1 lead.
The final period started well for Devils when Mark Richardson scored to make it 5-2 at 43-28, but Alexander Mokshantsev (47-57) and Zack Phillips (50-28) completed the home win.
Thomas Murdy replaced Ben Bowns in goal after the seventh goal when the game was already out of reach.
Devils stayed away overnight before playing Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Sunday evening.
Match stats:
Scorers, Panthers: Robert Lachowicz 2+0, Brett Perlini 1+1, Zack Phillips 2+1, Luke Pither 1+2, Alexander Mokshantsev 1+0, Ollie Betteridge 0+1, Josh Tetlow 0+1, Jeff Brown 0+1, Evan Mosey 0+1, Mike Vaskuvio 0+2, Mark Derlago 0+2, David Clarke 0+2.
Devils: Matthew Myers 1+0, Mark Richardson 1+0, Andrew Hotham 0+1, Patrick Asselin 0+1, Matt Pope 0+1, Joey Martin 0+1.
Period scores (Panthers first): 2-1; 3-0 (5-1); 2-1 (7-2).
Shots on goal: Panthers (on Bowns) 11+9+10=30; Devils (on Garnett) 9+11+8=28.
Penalties in minutes: Panthers 6+0+0=6; Devils 4+2+4=10.
Powerplays: Panthers 2/5; Devils 1/3.
Attendance: 6,666
Referee: Tom Darnell and Matt Thompson
Stars of the game: Panthers, Luke Pither; Devils, Gleason Fournier.
Other Saturday Elite League results: Belfast Giants 2, Edinburgh Capitals 4; Braehead Clan 1, Coventry Blaze 3; Fife Flyers 7, Dundee Stars 0; Milton Keynes Lightning 1, Manchester Storm 4; Sheffield Steelers 3, Guildford Flames 2.
Capitals earned their first win in 10 games, beating Belfast 4-2 away to hurt Belfast’s title hopes.
Giants hit back twice to level after falling behind, but Caps produced a gritty performance and netted an empty net goal to clinch victory.
A Chase Schaber hat-trick helped Fife Flyers earn a 7-0 win over Dundee Stars and they are close to winning the Gardiner Conference.
If Flyers win the rematch in Dundee on Sunday they will be Conference champions for the first time.
MK Lightning coach Pete Russell will leave the Buckinghamshire club by mutual consent at the end of the season.
Russell joined the Lightning in 2015, leading them to an English Premier League Cup and playoff double in 2016-17 before resuming his place behind the bench for the team’s inaugural Elite League campaign this year.
“I’ll leave Milton Keynes with some special memories that will stay with me and my family,” said Russell.
“I wish this club nothing but the best, from the bottom of my heart.”
Russell will continue in his role as Team GB Head Coach with the national side set to take part in Division One A at the 2018 World Championships in April.
ELITE LEAGUE STANDINGS
Regular 2017/18
| Rk | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | SOL | WPCT | Pts |
| 1 | Cardiff Devils | 44 | 33 | 8 | 1 | 2 | .784 | 69 |
| 2 | Manchester Storm | 45 | 28 | 12 | 3 | 2 | .678 | 61 |
| 3 | Belfast Giants | 45 | 29 | 14 | 2 | 0 | .667 | 60 |
| 4 | Fife Flyers | 41 | 27 | 12 | 1 | 1 | .683 | 56 |
| 5 | Sheffield Steelers | 43 | 26 | 14 | 2 | 1 | .640 | 55 |
| 6 | Guildford Flames | 44 | 23 | 15 | 4 | 2 | .591 | 52 |
| 7 | Nottingham Panthers | 41 | 23 | 15 | 2 | 1 | .598 | 49 |
| 8 | Braehead Clan | 46 | 19 | 23 | 3 | 1 | .457 | 42 |
| 9 | Coventry Blaze | 45 | 17 | 24 | 3 | 1 | .422 | 38 |
| 10 | Dundee Stars | 43 | 17 | 23 | 2 | 1 | .430 | 37 |
| 11 | Milton Keynes Lightning | 45 | 16 | 28 | 1 | 0 | .367 | 33 |
| 12 | Edinburgh Capitals | 44 | 5 | 38 | 0 | 1 | .125 | 11 |