Cardiff Devils players will be exhausted when the new year dawns.
They are facing a massive test, playing six matches in 22 days over Christmas, starting against Guildford Flames in Surrey on Wednesday.
Their final fixture in 2017 is against MK Lightning on Saturday, December 30, while Devils open 2018 in Milton Keynes on New Year’s Day.
That is the first of three matches in four days and Devils have been without injured players Mark Louis, Paul Crowder, Josh Batch and Craig Moore.
The loss of Crowder is a blow after he linked up with Justin Faryna and Joey Haddad against Steelers and that line scored all four goals.
Louis is close to a return and has been skating, while he went out for the warm-ups against Sheffield and Braehead last weekend, but did not play.
Player-coach Andrew Lord looks certain to ice at Guildford in midweek when Devils are on a Challenge Cup revenge mission.
Flames defeated Devils home (8-4) and away (3-2) in group matches, although both qualified for the quarter-finals.
Cardiff are on a winning run of six matches, while Guildford have suffered only one defeat in nine games – and that was against Devils.
Both teams earned back-to-back wins last weekend. Flames defeated Braehead 5-3 and Edinburgh 7-3, while Devils won against Sheffield 4-1 and Braehead 6-4.
Liam Stewart and Brett Ferguson scored two goals each for Guildford against Edinburgh on Saturday and head coach Paul Dixon said: “We don’t have time to stop and feel good about ourselves because we have Cardiff coming to us Wednesday for the cup quarter-final and then we are off to Manchester on Friday night.
“This is the beginning of an extremely busy stretch and it will be exciting to see how the guys are able to handle the overall challenge in front of us over the next couple of weeks.”
Cardiff Devils remaining fixtures during December:
Wednesday 20: v Guildford Flames (away, Challenge Cup first leg, 7pm)
Friday 22 v Braehead Clan (away, 7.30pm)
Saturday 23 v Dundee Stars (home, 7pm)
Tuesday 26 v Coventry Blaze (home, 6pm)
Wednesday 27 v Coventry Blaze (away, 7.30pm)
Saturday 30 v MK Lightning (home, 7pm)
Tickets for Cardiff’s home fixtures are available via ONLINE HERE
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Cardiff Devils leading scorers: Joey Martin 7+17=24; Matt Pope 6+17=23; Layne Ulmer 9+12=21; Jake Morissette 7+12=19; Sean Bentivoglio 4+15=19; Paul Crowder 8+8=16; Gleason Fournier 6+9=15; Justin Faryna 11+2=13; Patrick Asselin 6+5=11.
Elite League stats:
Leading points scorers: John Dunbar (Guildford) 42, Calle Ackered (Guildford) 40, Sebastien Sylvestre (Belfast) 37, Marc-Oliver Vallerand (Coventry) 37, Mike Hammond (Manchester) 36.
Leading goalscorer: Marc-Oliver Vallerand (Coventry) 22, Brendan Brooks (Braehead) 16, Sebastien Sylvestre (Belfast) 15, Mike Hammond (Manchester) 15, Guillaume Doucet (MK Lightning) 15.
Leading assists: John Dunbar (Guildford) 33, Jesse Craige (Guildford) 28, Calle Ackered (Guildford) 27, Matt Beca (Manchester) 24, Sebastien Sylvestre (Belfast) 22.
Leading penalty minutes: Spiro Goulakos (Belfast) 141 minutes, Danick Paquette (Coventry) 99, Linden Springer (Manchester) 98, Dax Lauwers (Coventry) 97, Francis Verreault-Paul (MK Lightning) 89.