Cardiff Devils owner Steve King met up with former club D-men Andrew and Scott Hotham in North America. The brothers are both playing for Stoney Creek Generals.

Lord Demands Six Of The Best For Devils in 2018

Cardiff Devils have six Elite League fixtures in 2018 – and head coach Andrew Lord is demanding a big finish before the new year.

Captain Jake Morissette and his Devils have four away fixtures plus two at the Viola Arena in Cardiff Bay, against Dundee Stars this Saturday and then Coventry Blaze on Thursday, December 27.

Devils opened up the title chase in style on Saturday with a 5-2 win at Manchester Storm, a gutsy performance after their devastating Challenge Cup exit against Glasgow Clan the previous evening.

Club owner Steve King was delighted with the Devils reaction to that cup defeat, tweeting: “For some reason this day feels a bit better than yesterday. Great response @cardiffdevils and great leadership @AndrewLord17

“Intensity, work ethic, commitment, attention to detail and playing to the game plan were factors we got spot on,” said head coach Andrew Lord after the victory in Manchester. 

“I’m really proud. We earned a solid win in a tough place to play.

“We talked about what we needed to do better, but we have to remember this is a veteran group with a lot of pride. That’s one of the reasons we have won titles. They players showed their pride.

“Our home defeat against Clan still stings and it will sting for a long time. But the win in Manchester is a big step forward.”

Former Devils captain Ryan Finnerty is the Storm head coach and he said: “Devils came out incredibly hard, while I didn’t like the way started.

“If it hadn’t been for Ginny (goaltender Matt Ginn) we would have been out of it in a hurry. We were 2-2 going into the third, but then Cardiff scored a power play goal and we crumbled.

“We struggled to get anything going and ran into penalty trouble. Devils took it to us from the off and that doesn’t happen too often in our barn.”

Devils travel to play MK Lightning on Thursday before returning to South Wales for a home clash with Dundee on Saturday.

Remaining Devils fixtures in 2018:

December

Thursday 20 v MK Lightning (away, 7.30pm)

Saturday 22 v Dundee Stars (home, 7pm)

Sunday 23 v Guildford Flames (away, 6pm)

Boxing Day, Wednesday 26 v Coventry Blaze (away, 6pm)

Thursday 27 v Coventry Blaze (home, 7pm)

Sunday 30 v Guildford Flames (away, 6pm)

TICKETS for Devils home games available ONLINE HERE or by calling 0800 0842 666 or in person at the reception desk at VIOLA ARENA right up until face-off at 6pm.

An excellent opening seven minutes from Flames was enough to give them a lead that Nottingham Panthers were never able to come back from.

It took just three minutes 14 seconds for Guildford’s John Dunbar to opened the scoring on a powerplay and Ian Watters added a second (5-02).

Two minutes later Panthers were in a real hole, three down when Evan Ritt netted. 

Alex Guptill put Panthers on the board at 8-52, while Flames regained three goal lead with 28-12 played when TJ Foster netted.

Panthers scored a much-needed goal at the start of the final period, Alexandre Bolduc pulling the score back to 2-4 on a powerplay, but Flames finished in style with Kruise Reddick and Richard Krough completing the victory.

Sunday results: Nottingham 2, Guildford 6; Coventry 2, Dundee 5; Manchester 4, Belfast 6.

ELITE ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE 2018/19

TEAM GP W L OTL PTS PCT GF GA PIM STREAK
Belfast Giants 28 21 7 0 42 .750 107 63 404 1-0
Cardiff Devils 25 17 4 4 38 .760 102 69 325 1-0
Nottingham Panthers 30 16 8 6 38 .633 95 90 508 0-4
Fife Flyers 27 15 8 4 34 .630 95 88 359 1-0
Guildford Flames 26 14 11 1 29 .558 89 81 347 1-0
Dundee Stars 28 10 10 8 28 .500 77 94 308 1-0
Sheffield Steelers 27 13 14 0 26 .481 80 89 391 0-1
Glasgow Clan 24 12 11 1 25 .521 73 83 292 1-0
Coventry Blaze 26 10 11 5 25 .481 82 95 360 0-1
Manchester Storm 27 10 14 3 23 .426 75 98 747 0-2
Milton Keynes Lightning 26 9 15 2 20 .385 65 90 541 2-0

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *