Boxing Day - Devils Vs Flyers

24th Dec 2011 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Boxing day sees another Christmas Cracker in Cardiff Bays big blue tent as the Devils play hosts to the Fife Flyers. This will be the third meeting between the two Clubs this season; the Devils go into the game currently leading the series 2-0 having won away in Fife 4-2 and a home 5-1 earlier in the season.

Fife were very much under strength going into last weekends games, with Captain Danny Stewart and influential D man, Matt Cohen both missing through injury leaving them with only 4 defensive players on the roster all of whom were British trained players.

First up for the understrength Fife Flyers was the first of two games against the Steelers, staring with an away game in Sheffield on Saturday where surprisingly the score line was nil all at the end of the first period.
The Steelers quickly took the lead in the second with two goals inside the first minute of the second period, firstly from Mike Ramsay with just 26 seconds on the clock followed just 17 seconds later by another from Luke Fulghum. It was Ramsay with his second of the game on the power play to give the Steelers a three-goal lead to close out a scoreless period for the Flyers.

The Steelers added a fourth as newcomer Francis Trudel scored in the middle of the third seemingly sealing the win for them. But then the Flyers came roaring back as first Chris Wands then Toms Hartmanis and Mike Hamilton hit back with three for the Flyers in just a few minutes bringing them back into the game and chasing the Equalizer.

Having made a massive fight back the Flyers were really up against it in the final minute. A goal behind – under penalty – and the goal tender pulled it came as no real surprise when the home side scored an empty net goal to win the game and stop Fifes comeback charge.

Final score Sheffield Steelers 5 – 3 Flyers with the Flyers making a massive comeback in a game that the Steelers  should have realistically closed out at 3 nil.

The return leg on Sunday proved to be another eye opener as again the first period was again scoreless.

The second period proved to be a strong one of the Flyers who netted 4 goals starting with a power play strike by Matt Siddall and then player/coach Todd Dutiaume made it 2-0. Remarkably it was 3-0 not long after when Toms Hartmanis found the net only for Steelers own player/coach Ryan Finnerty to get his side on the board soon after.
The Flyers then extended this lead with another goal with just17 seconds of the period remaining Siddall scored his 2nd for a 4-1 Flyers lead.

It then fell to Toms Hartmanis to shoot Flyers 5-1 early in the third. This spurred Ryan Finnerty into action and starting net minder John DeCaro who had taken a puck in the neck early in the game and tried to play on was replaced with by back up Geoff Woolhouse.

With Woolhouse in net the Steelers then began a remarkable comeback with Luke Fulghum pulling a goal back, on the power play followed just 18 seconds later be Steve Birnstill to make it 5-3, soon after another power play goal for Steelers from Fulghum made it a 1-goal game and then with time running out it was tied with just three minutes to go when Jeff Legue scored to tie the game.

Carrying the momentum into overtime the Steelers scored first in overtime after just 31 seconds Mark Thomas netted winning the game for the Steelers.

Speaking after last weekends games player/coach Todd Dutiaume was very happy with his teams performances despite only taking one point from the four on offer

“It was a very strange weekend of hockey. On Saturday evening, we found ourselves 4-0 down going into the 3rd period, pulling the game back to 4-3, but just not having quite enough in the tank to see us take a point, or even a victory. Then of course on Sunday at home, we were 5-1 ahead, with less than a period to play, but I think nerves caught us a little, and some tension crept into our play, which obviously, teams like the Steelers, will capitalise on, and punish you. At the start of the season, we were making mistakes really early in the games, then it was 2nd period collapses, but we’re now really only tiring in the last 10-15 minutes of games, which is obviously something we are working very hard on to eradicate from our play altogether, and with the additions of Dan Ceman, and Tim Maxwell, we have made massive strides forward in recent weeks with our personal available”

The Flyers have added two players since we last played them with the addition of Dan Ceman from the Dundee Stars and the signing of Canadian defenceman Tim Maxwell. The 27-year-old from Alberta, a former team-mate of Mike Hamilton, played in Norway last season after two seasons in North America's East Coast Hockey League with Utah Grizzlies.

Coach Todd Dutiaume said: "We have worked hard to get Tim and it's great to finally have him over here in Kirkcaldy. He is an offensive defenceman and that gives me some more options.

“Tim is really going to add a new dimension to our roster, He is an offensively minded D man, and will really give us some dynamic options, especially on our power play which is starting to click into place. Tim’s not afraid to jump into the plays, but is very level headed, and will offer welcome help to Matt [Cohen] on defence”.

Fife may still be short benched even with the arrival of Maxwell with both Danny Stewart and Matt Cohen still possibly missing through injury.

The guys to watch for Fife are Forwards Mike Hamilton ( 36 points) Matt Siddal ( 29 points) and Dan Ceman ( 18 points this season) and newcomer Toms Hartmanis who is on 16 points in just 17 games. On defence if they return to the Ice Matt Cohen (21 points) and Danny Stewart (17 points) also provide scoring options for the Flyers.

The Devils played the Steelers last night ( the 23rd) and drew 4 – 4 securing a place in the Challenge cup semi finals. You can see what Gerard Adams and new signing Jamie Vanderveeken had to say about the game here.

http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/g-jamie-post-game/

There have as yet been no injuries announced after the Steerlers game so with a little luck the Devils will again be able to Ice a full team with a full compliment of Imports.

We will be running a festively themed “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

You can also follow on Twitter for updates on @InfernoMNL and @theInfernoCoUk for random musings

And if you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat before the game or a few beers afterwards we’d suggest the Pilot in Penarth which is a short trip away and will also be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/