Defenceman Mark Louis takes care of business in front of the Cardiff Devils net. Pic: Richard Murray.

Steelers’ Tom Quotes Clint Eastwood On Devils Defeat

Tom Barraso, Sheffield Steelers’ head coach, quoted Clint Eastwood after his team were edged out 3-2 by Elite League leaders Cardiff Devils.

He was being interviewed by Dave Sims, who asked: “Did you think we deserved something from the game?”

Barraso’s reply was: “It was Clint Eastwood who said deserves got nothing to do with it.”

Gleason Fournier scored Devils winning goal with less than five minutes left in the final period, firing high into the net past outstanding goaltender Jackson Whistle.

“Devils are the best team we have played,” said American Barraso, a former NHL netminder. “Belfast Giants are extremely good, but top to bottom Cardiff are the best. They have four good ones, mobile defensemen and apply pressure all night long.”

The winning goal. Gleason Fournier’s late strike for Cardiff Devils flies into the net past man of the match Jackson Whistle. Pic: Richard Murray.

Head coach Andrew Lord and his team earned a 10th successive Elite League win and extended their advantage ahead to second-placed Belfast Giants to 11 points.

Steelers were far from happy with match officials Tom Pering and Stefan Hogarth, who awarded a penalty against the home team before they fired the puck past netminder Ben Bowns.

To be fair, the referee’s arm went up some time before the puck went in as soon as John Armstrong crashed into goalie Bowns.

There was a lot of physical contact in front of the net with defensemen moving in fast and Armstrong was propelled into the Devils netminder.

A penalty was awarded as soon as Bowns was knocked down and Barraso said: “Jackson was clearly checked into their goaltender. 

https://twitter.com/steelershockey/status/1088216088003964929

“If the referees waive off the goal because their goalie wasn’t allowed to take his position then fine, but I don’t see the penalty.”

Devils were without Michael Hedden and Joey Haddad against Sheffield Steelers, but both are expected to be available again soon.

The fixture at Sheffield Steelers was the first of four successive Devils away games and they now go to Nottingham Panthers on Saturday, Fife Flyers the following day and then Manchester Storm.

Their next home tests at the Viola Arena are against Sheffield Steelers on Sunday, February 3 (6pm) and Coventry Blaze (Saturday, February 9).

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 39 30 5 4 64 .821 158 96 438 10-0
Belfast Giants 37 26 10 1 53 .716 138 90 488 0-2
Nottingham Panthers 44 21 14 9 51 .580 137 137 721 1-0
Fife Flyers 38 20 13 5 45 .592 132 130 530 0-1
Glasgow Clan 36 20 14 2 42 .583 131 119 423 2-0
Dundee Stars 40 16 15 9 41 .513 111 135 391 4-0
Guildford Flames 39 18 17 4 40 .513 127 124 498 0-3
Manchester Storm 40 18 18 4 40 .500 121 139 890 0-1
Sheffield Steelers 40 19 20 1 39 .488 122 137 536 0-1
Coventry Blaze 37 16 14 7 39 .527 131 147 450 1-0
Milton Keynes Lightning 40 11 25 4 26 .325 97 151 742 0-6

ELITE ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE LEADING POINTS SCORERS 2018/19

RANK PLAYER TEAM POS NUM GP G A P PIM PP PPA SH SHA GWG
1 Kruise Reddick GUI F 51 39 21 31 52 30 8 16 2 1 2
2 Ben Lake COV F 9 37 22 28 50 53 5 6 0 0 2
3 Gleason Fournier CAR D 20 39 17 33 50 22 4 14 0 0 5
4 Mike Hammond MAN F 21 33 12 38 50 14 3 9 2 2 2
5 Matt Beca GLA F 26 36 19 30 49 14 3 9 0 2 3
6 Charles Linglet CAR F 70 39 14 35 49 8 2 16 0 0 2
7 Paul Crowder FIF C 80 37 21 27 48 46 4 13 0 1 2
8 Alex Nikiforuk COV F 22 37 16 31 47 39 6 13 0 0 2
9 Brendan Connolly GLA C 9 34 24 22 46 58 4 9 0 0 4
10 Blair Riley BEL RW 25 37 23 23 46 43 5 5 1 0 6

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