Cardiff Devils players and fans were left shellshocked after suffering a six-goal beating at Ice Sheffield.

Captain Jake Morissette and his team outshot hosts Sheffield Steelers 40-29, but returned to South Wales having been beaten 6-2.

Devils now face a huge task in the second leg of this Challenge Cup semi-final, but Steelers coach Paul Thompson warned: “It’s not over yet.”

Goaltender Ervins Mustukovs was Sheffield’s man of the match, saving 38 shots on a night when Devils produced some good hockey and failed to find the finishing touch.

“I’m proud of my players,” said Thompson. “Everybody to a man. Excellent.

“But it’s not over. Devils are a great hockey club. They have excellent coaching, quality players.

“We had to be strongest around both nets and when we weren’t Moose (Mustukovs) was there to backstop us. When Devils surged and came at us we contained it.”

Matt Pope and Joey Haddad scored for Devils to keep their cup hopes flickering, but Sheffield have a stranglehold on the semi-final and will roll their four lines at Ice Arena Wales in the second leg next Wednesday (7.30pm).

There is still belief in the Devils camp and Calgary-based owner Craig Shostack, who watched the match in Sheffield via a live stream, said: “We have some work to do. But with our Devils Army of fans behind us at home I know we can do it.”

Steelers have struck a rich vein of form, beating Nottingham Panthers 8-0 away at the weekend and then firing six past Devils goalie Ben Bowns.

The victory was Sheffield’s 100th win against Devils in all competitions and they are playing with confidence and discipline.

Elite League leaders Devils were beaten by goals from Tim Wallace (shorthanded), Scott Aarssen, Ben O’Connor, Mathieu Roy, Matt Marquardt and Levi Nelson.

It simply wasn’t Cardiff’s night and that was underlined when, on the first powerplay of the game, Joey Martin fired his shot against the bar. On the same play, Wallace swept in from the left, faked to pass and lashed home near post at five minutes 23 seconds.

Only 63 seconds late Franssila played a short pass inside to defensive partner Scott Aarsson, who banged home first time.

Ben O’Connor added a third, Steelers led 3-1 at the first period break and Devils were on the slide.

In the other semi-final Belfast Giants won their first leg tie 5-1 against Nottingham Panthers away.

Cardiff are now focused on back-to-back League matches against Belfast Giants this weekend. The two top of the table clashes are on Friday and Saturday.

Match stats:

Scorers, Steelers: Tim Wallace 1+0, Scott Aarssen1+0, Ben O’Connor 1+1, Mathieu Roy 1+0, Matt Marquardt 1+0, Levi Nelson 1+1, Joonas Ronnberg 0+1, Mike Franssila 0+1, Eric Neiley 0+2, Andreas Valdix 0+1, David Phillips 0+1, Mark Matheson 0+2, Jonathan Phillips 0+1.

Devils: Matt Pope 1+0, Joey Haddad 1+0, Joey Martin 0+1, Jake Morissette 0+1.

Period scores (Steelers first): 3-1; 2-0 (5-1); 1-1 (6-2).

Shots on goal: Steelers (on Bowns) 14+11+4=29; Devils (on Mustukovs) 10+18+12=40.

Penalties in minutes: Steelers 6+2+2=10; Devils 2+4+2=8.

Powerplays: Steelers 1/4; Devils 1/5.

Attendance: 1,428

Referee: Tom Darnell and Dean Smith

Stars of the game: Steelers, Ervins Mustukovs; Devils, Joey Haddad.

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