Challenge Cup Double header - Preview

18th Oct 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

This weekend game’s see the Devils in action twice in the  Challenge Cup in a double-header against the Coventry Blaze.  This will be the first meeting between the two teams since the preseason friendlies which saw the two teams both take wins on home Ice.

With both the Blaze looking to break a four-game losing streak the looking to ensure that they qualify for this next cup round these really are must win games for both teams. Last season the Devils seemed to have the Blazes number winning 7 of the 11 meetings between the two teams.

The Blaze come into the game missing defencemen  Benn Olson who is side lined with a broken finger.

Olson had this to say about his injury  "When I took my glove off I thought it was broken. I saw the doctor and he told me it could just be dislocated. I played another 10 minutes in the third but I just could not handle the pain.”

Last weekend say the Blaze lose both their games starting on  Saturday away in the Challenge Cup to the Nottingham Panthers who having  beaten Coventry last weekend away the completed the double over the Blaze as they made it six wins out of six in the Challenge Cup group games.

The Panthers were quickly off the mark as Matt Francis put them ahead with only 44 seconds on the clock. The home side added another from Bob Wren at 14.31 to open up a two goal lead.

The Blaze pulled one back as Michael Devin netted at 23.41 on the powerplay. It remained at 2-1 for the Panthers until 38.07 Cale Tanaka scored for the visitors to make it two apiece at the end of the second period.

Panthers then went on to hit three without reply in a seven minute spell. At 48.12 Leigh Salters put them in front once again this was followed by a shorthanded goal from Lynn Loyns at 50.34. With five minutes to play Matt Ryan got the home sides fifth. Coventry did have the final say in the goal scoring as Tanaka converted a penalty shot at 55.25.

Final Score Nottingham Panthers 5- 3 Coventry Blaze

The Blaze followed up the loss away with a  high scoring encounter in the Skydome as the Giants completed a fine weekend’s work with a second win, coming from behind and pulling clear in the third period with four straight goals.

A double for Jeff Szwez and four points for returnee Craig Peacock were the Giants highlights with Kevin Harvey’s double for the hosts unable to see his side sufficiently trouble the confident visitors.

A tremendous start for Blaze had seen them 2-0 ahead inside four minutes. A powerplay strike by Harvey set them on their way at 1.06 and Adam Henrich added a second at 3.23, forcing Giants to their time out.

Giants regrouped and scored the only other goal of the opening period with Peacock on target at 6.20.

Harvey fired Blaze two goals ahead once again at 31.35 but only 16 seconds later Cody Brookwell hit back for Giants and the game was tied at 33.24 with Szwez scoring his first.

Into period three and once again the home side hit the front with Ross Venus netting at 44.41. That however signalled a Giants onslaught which began with the game tying strike by Robby Sandrock at 46.19. Giants then went ahead for the first time when Jeff Mason fired in at 49.35 and with Blaze pressing it was Giants who scored twice late to pull clear, with Kevin Saurette at 58.17 and an empty net strike by Szwez with 23 seconds remaining icing the win for Paul Adey’s men.

Final score Blaze 4 – 7 Belfast Giants

Blazes Canadian forward Cale Tanaka had this to say  "I believe we have a team that has a chance of winning the league but mental breakdowns have cost us in the last few games.

"We have come out of the gate hard and have been playing well and there have been games we should have won. We had a good chat after Sunday's game and we need to get back to work. We know it is going to be another big test this weekend but we want to get back to winning ways."

For an in-depth view of the Blazes woeful weekend and a breakdown of exactly where they went wrong ( and right ) I’d suggest that you take a look at the rather good breaking down the Blaze piece here..
http://chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/breaking-down-the-blaze-belfast-giants-131012/

The ones to watch for the Blaze have to be

- Ryan Ginand who’s been “ripping things up “ on 12 Goals and 2 Assists in just 11 games
- Adam Henrich who’s netted 7 goals and 10 assists so far this season. 
- Ashley Tait who’s netted 4 goals and 11 assists so far this season.

In nets the Blaze are backed up by Mike Zacharias who despite looking a little shaky in the preseason against the Devils has been putting in some great performances and has a 92% Save percentage and a goals against average of just 2.9

The Devils go into this games having faced the Giants at home on Thursday with a potential injury to forward Andrew Conboy after a blindside hit to the head from Adam Keefe and also  without the services of long time Devil Phil Hill who was released earlier this week and Gerard Adams who has made the move from Player coach to the bench.

You can hear and see the Inferno “crew” chatting about the upcoming games against the Blaze, this week’s player movements, Aled’s choice of socks and a whole load more here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrpEpP7wzvo on Inferno TV.

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for this game, expect name calling, slurs and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

On Saturday OJ will be hosting and on Sunday we’ll be updating you live from the Inferno “News desk” at the rink thanks to the great guys at Analysis Technologies. If you’d like to chip in with a comment or make a score prediction you can contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

Also don’t forget that on Sunday if you can't make it down and you don't want to miss any of the action and reading the game isn’t enough you can get the game on Devils live TV here http://www.cardiffdevils.com/ for a jolly reasonable £8.