Devils Vs Blaze 25/11/12

22nd Nov 2012 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Sunday night see’s the return of the Coventry Blaze to Cardiff, after the fireworks of the last game and banning’s for incidents after the game there’s a lot of expectation on this game to be a big one and tickets are selling fast. This will be the fifth meeting between the two teams so far this season (Excluding pre-season) with the Blaze currently 3 – 1 up.

The Score line for the last game can be called in two ways with the on ice result of 2-1 to the Blaze this of course is eclipsed by the 16 - 0 margin in games banned with the Devils again coming out the worst.  You can check out the full details of this (if you missed it) here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/cardiff-devils-vs-coventry-blaze-disciplinary-findings/ 

We gave our previews of the Blaze squad earlier in the season which you can check out here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-blaze-29th-september-730pm-face-off/ they’ve made a few additions since then with NHL Lockout forward Matt Beleskey and forward Mike Bayrack from last season’s Braehead Clan joining after Mike Danton failed to get a visa sorted.

Last weekend saw the Blaze in action twice first up on Saturday which saw the Blaze on the road taking on the Braehead Clan, both teams had chances in the first period, but the only one that was taken was by ex-Blaze forward Robert Farmer at 17.47 with three seconds remaining on a Clan power play.

The Clan got caught napping inside the first minute of the second period as NHL lock put player Matt Beleskey got the Blaze back on level terms with 40 seconds on the clock. The Clan then regained their lead with a goal from Drew Miller at 33.58.

Clan player/coach Jordan Krestanovich opened up a two goal lead for his side as he netted at 44.47. It was a one goal game once again as Sam Smith fired into the net at 50.28. The hosts restored their two goal lead as Krestanovich with his second scored on a shorthanded play. With Hirsch pulled for the extra skater Jade Galbraith fired into the empty net to complete the scoring.

Braehead Clan 5 - 2 Coventry Blaze

Sunday night saw the Blaze triumph in (suspiciously yet another) ill-disciplined game at the Skydome against the Nottingham Panthers.

The opening period saw Panthers take the lead at 11.44 with a power play strike of their own as Robert Lachowicz was on target. That lead lasted barely a minute however as at 12.50 Gerome Giudice restored equality.

An early goal by Blaze via the stick of  Shea Guthrie saw the Blaze in the  lead 2-1 but Panthers came back late in the period and Lachowicz added his second to make the game 2-2 going into the third.

Third period penalty trouble for the visitors saw firstly Brad Leeb edge Blaze ahead again on the power play and a delayed penalty call only 57 seconds in and then At 41.55 the lead was extended with Dustin Cameron on target again on the power play.

Giudice scored his second of the game at 44.58 to round off a win for Paul Thompson’s Rock Em Sock Em Team.

Coventry Blaze 5 - 2 Nottingham Panthers

Looking at the Devils games against the Blaze so far this season its Shea Guthrie and Mike Schutte who’ve done the damage on 4 goals and 2 goals respectively against the Devils net.

Overall for the Blaze they are led in Scoring by Shea Guthrie, 8th highest scorer overall on 28 points who’s closely followed up by Schutte, 9th highest scorer overall on 28 points. Backing them up are the Leeb’s on 22 and 20 points apiece (they are like Ant And Dec I’m never sure which is which really but ones taller) and Dustin Cameron on 16 points.

The Blaze do of course also have the additional threat of Matt Beleskey in the squad who’s on a very respectable (unless you compare him to Mr BizNasty that is) 14 points from 12 games.

One area that the Blaze do undisputedly have a league leader in is Penalty minutes taken with Mr Benn “ Leaving his hat on” Olson having already taken an impressive 238 penalty minutes this season nearly 100 more that nearest rival our own Devin Didiomete. Well done Benn!

In nets the Blaze are back stopped by Peter Hirsch with a 91.5% save percentage and a goals against average of 3.03. While solid we know from previous seasons that Peter when rattled can be beaten.   

Looking at the Devils stats versus the Blaze so far this year our stand out guys have been Max Birbraer who will miss this game through suspension on 3 Goals  Stuart MacRae on 2 goals and Mac Faulkner who has 1 goal.

Devils will be missing Max for this game who’s is still suspended after last time and may well still be missing Tyson Marsh who was injured last time out against the Blaze and will more than likely be missing Bari McKenzie as well after a groin injury last weekend.

Having asked around its been confirmed that referee Dean Smith will be in charge of the match with linesman Lee Young & Keiron O’Halloran which hopefully means the game won’t degenerate into a WWE style table and chairs match, like it did last time.

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for this game, expect name calling and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out by texting updates (we’d be happy to hear from you) or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

For details of upcoming away travel with Red Army Travel and you can get all the information here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6639