Match Night Live

Good evening!

Chris with you tonight and as always I can be pestered/corrected on lots of things at matchnightlive@gmail.com

About an hour to go until total victory #18 hopefully :D

30minutes to go!

There seems to be some confusion about the faceoff time tonight

The Devils website says 7:30pm, the EIHL website says 7:00pm and the Dundee website says 6:30pm, i'm going with the Dundee time as they're hosting this game...

Confirmed faceoff is at 6:30pm - the players are out warming up...

So there we have it, never trust the Devils website or the EIHL website for away games

First prediction of the evening is in from Ruth, Devils to win 3-5 :D

Neil, or shifty says Devils to win 2-4 with Pelle scoring 2 goals

Donna and Megan are also going for a 2-4 victory

Hopefully the score will be slightly better than the last game we played up there :P

I took a lot of flak for that coverage, apparently I was far too negative, but I just view it as spurring the team on :)

Stephen says Devils to win 2-5 with it getting slightly heated, will have to see if we enforce the height restrictions on players who want to punch other players :P

Texter isn't sure if Davies has made the journey up for us guys, but the Stars are missing Latulippe, Maclean and Phillips all through injury

I'll hopefully be bringing you bits and pieces of news from the Q&A that's happening tonight, but I suspect there will be a proper writeup/report/post on the forums after the event

Vipers are taking another hammering, this time at home to the Panthers, 0-6 in the 2nd period so far :S

Seems Davies definitely isn't in Dundee tonight and may not be playing at all in future games...

Or I may have midunderstood an email there, he's just not playing tonight?

Mark predicting a 1-4 Devils victory tonight :D

Any last minute predictions before the game starts? matchnightlive@gmail.com

Carl says Devils to win 3-6!

As long as they don't score 7 again tonight it's all good :)

The lights are off, the Devils are on the ice \o/

Devils don't have enough for 3 whole lines tonight it would seem, we've only got 14 outskaters...

Dundee are armed with 15...

Mark says Devils 2-8 victory with a hat-trick for Michel :D

Ger-Devils says 3-5 Devils win \o/

Anthems done, handshakes sorted...

And the puck is dropped, GOOOOOOO DEVILS!

1st correction of the evening, We do indeed have 3 full lines, 3 lines of forwards plus 5 D, oops :P

I seem to have missed some of my own updates here, so if you can;t see the game has started, hit F5 :)

Advance warning, I am relying on just 1 person tonight so updates may be a little thinner on the ground, but i'll try and find something to talk rubbish about

Hanson is the ref up in Dundee, do we know if he's as biased towards the Stars as he is towards the Capitals?

Thanks Claire, I didn't realise we only had 16 skaters in full with Davies and Symonds

Looking at the gamesheet, I'm not sure there's even been a save yet from either netminder!

With no updates coming through/nothing happening in the game so far, if you haven't already have a look at this December in review :)

It's certainly very very quiet :S

Stars penalty, Zarb 2mins for interference at 6:53

Well, hopefully that leads to a powerplay goal or at least something exciting happening :)

Also, if anyone out there knows who 'DiscoDai' is on the forums, if you have my mobile number could you please pass it on to them? They offered to do updates, but their email never turned up and they obviously haven't read my PM :(

Well it's another update :P

Devils penalty at 7:17, K Smith 2mins for slashing

Sorry, that should be 8:17 for the Devils penalty

So when Zarb comes back, Stars will have a powerplay for roughly 1:30, let's hope our PK works as well as usual...

Stars are full strength

Devils back to full strength also

2 Devils penalties coming...

Devils penalty, Finnerty 2mins for slashing at 11:11

Devils penalty, Pelle 2mins for slashing sorry, Finnerty 2mins for elbows...

Both penalties were timed at 11:11 though, I had that much right :P

Devils back to full strength

Stars created a couple of good chances on the powerplay, but the Devils PK is working well again \o/

Another Devils penalty...

Devils penalty, M Smith 2mins for hooking at 16:08

4 Devils jerseys have been spotted in the crowd, hopefully they're making lots of noise :E

And the Stars take the lead :(

Stars goal timed at 17:24, Nebus from Cartwright, powerplay goal :(

Come on Devils!

Stars penalty, Cartwright 2mins for hooking at 19:37

We must be nearing the end of the period...

Michel forced a very good save from Kudrna at the end of the 1st, but we're losing 1-0 :(

We did come back from 0-2 down against the Steelers, so hopefully we can manage it tonight!

Shots on goal, 15 on Lyle, 8 on Kudrna...

When was the last time we were outshot almost 2 to 1?

Pretty even game in the 1st, Stars have taken the lead though and made the Devils pay :(

Finnerty has been trying to wind Wishart and Zarb up so far, and managed to draw the penalty on Zarb :E

Sounds like there's a good turnout for this Q&A, hopefully we'll be getting some news out of there shortly!

Details on the Stars 1st goal have been changed, it should now read...

Stars goal at 17:24, Nebus from Cartwright at Makway - PPG

Both teams back on the ice

Devils start the 2nd period with 1:36 of powerplay, hopefully we can convert that into many goals :P

Here we go with the 2nd, come on Devils!

Shorthanded breakaway for the Stars see's the puck go out of play...

I Think that was timed at 20:20

Stars are back to full strength, no powerplay goal this time :(

Devils start well but Finnerty still trying to goad Zarb into fighting/another penalty

Stars penalty, Kinos 2mins for interference at 23:07

Correction #2 of the night, the shots on goal should be reversed, Devils had 15, Stars had 8

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

YES!

Devils 1st goal, K smith from Hill at 23:52 - Powerplay goal :D

Devils haven't left the Stars zone since the goal was scored, but no clear cut chances yet...

And as that goal was scored, the Q&A started, i'll try and differentiate between the posts somehow

And it's announced, our coaches for next year will be...

Adams and Francis :)

Devils score, but the goal is disallowed :(

Seems the nets had come off at 27:44, shame :(

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

Apparently my update saying Adams and Francis had been announced has been eaten by the system, hit F5 to see the original :P

Devils 2nd goal, Birbraer from Pelle at 28:06 :D

That's Birbraers 4th goal of the 2 games so far, and Pelles 60th point of the season I do believe!

60points in 35 games, now if he can just manage another 10points somehow tonight...

Although I guess I can live with how awesome he's playing at the moment :)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

Devils score a 3rd :D

Devils 3rd goal timed at 31:14, Macrae from Michel and Richardson :D

I'll put updates from the fans forum in the period break, unless the game suddenly goes very quiet

Stars all over the place, Devils are playing out of their skins :D

Well it's gone very quiet, so....

The 2 pad plans have been mentioned, PI have agreed but a/the hotel down the Bay needs to approve the plan

Paul Ragan very very hacked off with losing the tender, but he's working with PI to try and improve the corporate side of the new rink, whatever shape it takes.

The council are the main problem in the plans for the new rink, not Planet Ice.

Paul Ragan was encouraged into buying us by the wage cap, but as it no longer exists it's been described as a 'mess'

He says the lack of wage cap killed the ISL and this league needs to sort it out before it's too late...

Steelers were on the verge of folding entirely, Devils were/are generating 4 times the commercial income the Steelers are...

Although the Devils have lost money, the company is strong and improvements are ongoing to turn us around entirely

Sorry for the lack of game updates by the way, i'm not hearing anything from Dundee so i'll keep going with this for now...

Devils and Steelers will be running with a wage cap next season, only other option was a drop down to the EPL for BOTH teams...

We're 3-5 years away from a promotion/relegation league system, but it's very likely the import limit will be DROPPED for next season to ensure the survival of the EIHL

Game time in Dundee - About 38mins gone, Devils deserve to be ahead and are now defending their lead

Or not, it's the end of the 2nd and the score is Stars 1-3 Devils

By import limit dropped, i mean the number of imports, not the limit being removed completely :)

Supposedly 3 strong, 7 weak teams exist in the EIHL and the league should be helping the 7 weaker teams

Focus is on refereeing consistency though, money needs to be put into bringing European refs over to help our refs

Aha, it should be 7 strong teams, 3 weak teams

That makes slightly more sense now :P

In that period Stars were 2nd to every puck, almost the whole period spent defending in their own zone for the Stars

Devils looking good for 2points and an 18th straight victory :D

Shots on goal have been given the wrong way around again, Devils had 15, Stars had 6 during the 2nd period

Ok, we've got changes to the Devils 2nd goal, it should now read...

infact no, we have changes to the 1st goal now as well...

Devils 1st goal should read - K Smith from Hill and Finnerty at 23:52 - PPG

Devils 2nd goal should read - Birbraer from Matzka and Weller at 28:06

So there goes Pelles 60th point :(

Hopefully he can score a goal or grab an assist in the 3rd to get it back :D

Back to the Q&A...

Weller very likely to stay until the end of the season now with plans to offer longterm contract to him but we all know he may be back off to North America

Building work will start on the new rink in March and hopefully the building will be reading for the 2012/2013 season

Supporters club is being looked at, they're hoping to get deals going, i.e. Season Ticket holders automatically registered

Supporters club to be formalised in March...

Confirmed that Paul Ragan has nothing to do with recruiting players :)

It is however confirmed that Davies IS going to be joining the Bison, the club have requested a 2 way deal

Davies chose to go, club disappointed to be losing him but it's 'about learning'

News came as a shock to the club, but they're hoping to have him back next season 'on arguably the best team in the UK'

Commercial coverage of the team is increasing, a lot of work going into it and fantastic coverage from Terry Phillips

Wonder if that bit will make it into his match report :P

Advertising on BBC and SKY is increasing and helping to build momentum

It seems that the SKY coverage is still being paid for by the league, but they're working on trying to increase coverage and attendances to the games

The Clubs are paying for the league coverage, not the league itself...

Back to the game, the puck has been dropped for the start of the 3rd period, come on Devils!

No, it is the league that pay SKY, gosh this is confusing

Club are hoping to have most of the current squad signed up by the end of this month, they don't want to lose players this good :)

Our players cost considerably less than Sheffields...

The league is looking for a sponsor and several proposals are being worked on...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

Devils 4th goal timed at 41:40, Finnerty from Hill and Voth :D

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

Devils score a 5th!

Devils 5th goal timed at 42:30, Macrae from Michel :D

Stars call a timeout after Devils 5th goal

Macraes 2nd of the night, maybe he will get that hat-trick someone predicted :D

Dundee crowd are going nuts at the Cardiff bench for some reason :D

It's gone very quiet again from Dundee...

Voth and Richardson come very close on a 2on1 breakaway

Dundee fans singing that they would quite like their money back please, just in not so many nice words :P

Devils penalty coming...

I've just realised, there was only 1 penalty in the 2nd period and that was to the Stars!

Devils penalty, Adams 2mins for slashing at 49:50

WHAT!

Michel scores a shorthanded goal, but the goaljudge says no!

Hanson is having a word

what the hell!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

Devils 6th goal timed at 51:01, Michel scored, unsure on assists

Seems Kudrna moved the nets, goal judge tried to say goal disallowed, Hanson allows it to stand :D

Michel unassisted it would seem, amazingly awesome :D

Myers replaces Lyle in nets after our 6th goal :D

Seems the puck went past Kudrna and came straight back out, goal judge didn't see it, and then the nets somehow came off their moorings...

if you can't see 'GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL' after 'what the hell' then hit f5 :)

It's gone very quiet from Dundee and there's a short break at the Q&A :)

Paul Ragan has bought the franchise and rights to the Steelers so they're a trading co.

Not quite sure what that means, but it's what i've been told :)

Stars penalty at 56:18, McCluskey 2+10 for checking from behind

Pelle was on the end of that hit, Devils fans up in Dundee say it was a massive hit

Into the final 2minutes up in Dundee, an 18th win coming :D

Confirmed - Phillips family will have no further involvement with UK Ice Hockey :D

Cheers and claps all around as that's announced :D

Final score, Stars 1-6 Devils :D

Devils man of the match goes to Pelle :D

Shots on goal for the 3rd, Devils had 14, Stars had 4

Stars man of the match goes to Nebus

That's all from me, hopefully everyone enjoyed that 18th straight victory :D

Chris out.