Cardiff Devils captain Jake Morissette. Pic: Richard Murray.

Devils Title Pressure Grows In Chase For Elite Glory

Coventry Blaze 2, Belfast Giants 7

Title chasers Belfast Giants kept the pressure up on league leaders Cardiff Devils by winning their game in hand this evening live on FreeSports.

An explosive opening period from the visitors saw them head in to the first break four goals ahead at the Skydome.

Patrick Dwyer scored Giants’ first 5-41 as he batted home a rebound through goaltender Matt Hackett’s five-hole. 

A perfect pass from Blair Riley found Dwyer for a far post tap-in at 9-16 before poor rebound control from Hackett gave Jonathan Boxill the puck on a plate to slot home at 13-32. 

Dwyer then completed a first period hat-trick with 46 seconds left in the opening session as he pounced on a bad turnover from the Blaze in their own zone and beat Hackett on the rebound with a nice move to score shorthanded.

Blaze Head Coach Danny Stewart’s intermission team-talk was undone 77 seconds into period two as Jonathan Ferland made it 5-0, but that goal was the last for the Giants for a while. 

Alex Nikiforuk put Blaze on the board at 36-53 and then 65 seconds into the final period Ben Lake cut the deficit back to 2-5. 

Blaze, on a man advantage chose to pull Hackett in favour of the extra attacker with well over five minutes to go and, after missing a couple of chances, Giants finally put the game well and truly to bed through Darcy Murphy at 55-12. 

Colin Shields added to his Elite League record points total with the final goal of the game at 55-31 to complete a 7-2 win for the Giants.

Cardiff Devils have two fixtures left in the regular season and need a minimum of three points from a possible four to be crowned Elite League champions.

They play MK Lightning at the Viola Arena in Cardiff Bay on Saturday evening (7pm) before travelling to Coventry Blaze the next day (5.15pm).

ELITE ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE 2018/19

TEAM GP W L OTL PTS PCT GF GA PIM STREAK
xCardiff Devils 58 42 10 6 90 .776 225 142 664 0-1
xBelfast Giants 58 43 13 2 88 .759 225 143 722 2-0
xNottingham Panthers 59 29 18 12 70 .593 183 179 983 0-1
xGlasgow Clan 58 30 23 5 65 .560 196 181 718 0-6
xGuildford Flames 58 29 23 6 64 .552 184 176 691 1-0
xFife Flyers 57 29 22 6 64 .561 183 191 829 2-0
xSheffield Steelers 59 29 26 4 62 .525 179 202 876 0-1
Coventry Blaze 58 25 25 8 58 .500 202 219 716 0-2
Manchester Storm 58 26 27 5 57 .491 173 201 1161 0-1
Dundee Stars 58 22 24 12 56 .483 161 192 560 1-0
Milton Keynes Lightning 57 15 38 4 34 .298 143 228 954 0-1

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