Devils V Clan Match Preview

16th Nov 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Looking at the Braehead Roster it’s not likely that they’ll get lost on the way to the tent for Sunday night’s game Vs. the Devils with the number of Ex Devils on the coach.  This will be the second meeting between the two clubs this season with the first meeting seeing a 3 – 4 Home defeat for the Devils in September while we were missing starting net minder Dan LaCosta.

For an in-depth look at Ryan Finnerty’s Clan’s line up we’d suggest that you check out the fairly excellent Chasing the Dragons blog season preview series here http://chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/ten-teams-ten-days-2-braehead-clan/

There’s been a bit of movement since then but it will give you a fair idea of what to expect. The latest edition of note being forward  Joe Cullen who will wear the #5 jersey for the Clan and makes his Debut on Saturday night against the Stingrays. 

It’s been a quiet "ish" November so far for the Clan who will have played just four games so far in the month coming into Sunday’s game with  the last week seeing them play Coventry at home mid-week and Hull on Saturday night.

Wednesday saw each team cancelling each other out throughout the game and with never more than a goal between them, it was Braehead who took both points in an epic encounter as they beat Coventry with an overtime winner, to make it seven straight wins in the league.

The played flowed from end to end with both teams coming close on more than a few occasions however; the only goal of the opening session came the way of the home team at 12.12 as Tristan Harper fired the puck home.

The opening of the second period saw both teams creating chances; however, both goaltenders were pulling off some big stops. We then had two goals in just over a minute as a strike from Michael Henrich at 33.29 had the visitors back on level terms. However, the hosts regained the lead at 34.48 with a goal from Ed McGrane.

For the second time in the game the Blaze restored equality as Kevin Harvey netted at 43.53. Both teams tried to get the game winner throughout the remainder of the period but neither could find that elusive goal and the game went into overtime.

The overtime period saw the play go from end to end with the homes side getting the better of the chances. At 62.14 the game winner came the way of the hosts as Matt Towe sent the homes fans into frenzy.
 
Final score Braehead Clan 3 – 2 Coventry Blaze (After Overtime)

Speaking after the game Clan coach Ryan Finnerty had this to say -

“I thought we looked pretty rusty last night, you could tell we hadn’t played for ten days” confirmed the Canadian."

“We’ve had guys double shifting against Coventry which wasn’t great, but with Cullen arriving for the Hull game that is good news.”

Saturday see’s the Clan at home to the Stingrays and the home debut of Joe Cullen as the Clan see if they can extend their straight run of league victories to 8 against the choking defence and lighting breakouts of the Stingrays.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s game Clan coach Finnerty had this to say –

"We owe Hull one as they beat us back in September at their place, however we were a new side then and we have a more settled roster now and most importantly we have the backing of our fans, the power of your fans can never be under estimated"

The Clan have built a great roster for this season but for us the ones to watch look to be -

Ed McGrane on 6 goals and 18 assists 

Joel Champagne on 8 goals and 13 assists

Shane Lust  on 5 goals and 11 assists

Ash Goldie on 5 goals and 7 assists

In Nets Kyle Jones has been solid for the Clan with a  90% Save percentage and a  2.6 Goals against average.

You can catch us talking about this weekend’s upcoming games, last weekend’s game against Hull and the departure of Andrew Conboy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMdjGBS1q-c  we also have yet another terrifying glimpse into Aled’s sock draw.

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

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 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 with commentary from Brent Pope on Devils live TV here  http://cardiffdevilstv.net/  for a jolly reasonable £8.