Devils Vs Blaze 25th + 26th Oct

21st Oct 2014 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

This weekend it’s a double fire fighting effort for the Devils as they look to extinguish the Blaze on Saturday and Sunday. The Blaze’s league record so far this season is a rather impressive 10-7-3 while against the Devils it’s a little less impressive with 4 Games played (in total including pre-season and challenge cup) the Devils currently lead the season 3 – 1.

Last weekend the Blaze were in action twice starting on Saturday night which saw them go down to a 4-2 defeat at Braehead Clan in an Elite League matchup. Derek Roehl put Clan ahead in the first period before two quick goals from Stefan Meyer and Jamie Fritsch prompted a Blaze time-out in the second period.

Jereme Tendler, with his 301st point in all EIHL competitions, pulled a goal back for Blaze on the powerplay at 26.01 to round out the second period.

But Meyer for the Clan added his second at 43.41 to restore Clan's three-goal cushion before Cale Tanaka reduced the deficit with just under 2 minutes remaining.

Coach Marc LeFebvre said: "You are always disappointed when you lose but I was proud of the guys because they never quit when it was 3-0 and 4-1.

"We didn't execute at the end of the day. We had a couple of chances in the first and if we take them then it is a different game. We even had a couple of chances when it was 3-1 but Kyle Jones has been playing well lately and he had another good game."

Sunday saw the Blaze overcome the  Edinburgh Capitals 3-2 in a shoot-out at the Skydome in the Elite League. Cale Tanaka put Blaze ahead at 4.44 but goals from Jordan Steel (13.24 short-handed) and Rene Jarolin (14.34) nudged the visitors in front.

Blaze outshot Capitals 27-5 in the second period but could not find a game-tying goal but it eventually came 53 seconds into the last session through captain Ashley Tait.

Capitals goaltender Tomas Hiadlovksy, who made 54 saves overall, then kept out a Ryan O'Marra penalty shot at 46.23 before Tendler won it in the shoot-out.

Coach Marc LeFebvre said: "We found a way to win. You have to give credit to their goalie, who stood on his head, but we have to start finding the back of the net. We have had 90 shots over the last two games and only scored four goals. We need to be hungrier and more determined around the net.

"The level of goaltending has improved so much this year, you really have to work hard for your goals. It is going to be a dogfight every night and you have to grind it out. 

"We made hard work of it and there are still lots of things to improve but we accomplished our goal of getting four points out of six this weekend."

The ones to watch on the Blaze squad so far (purely on stats look to be) -

Ryan O'Marra  on 1 Goal and 12 assists
Ashley Tait on 2 Goals and 10 assists
Jereme Tendler on 6 Goals and 4 assists
Steven Goertzen on 4 Goals and 6 assists

In nets Brian Stewart is currently the number 1 ranked net minder in the league with a 93.6% save percentage and a  2.55 Goals against average. What we’ve seen of him so far has been very solid indeed until he need to move side to side or lets a few goals in and loses his head them things start to come unstuck.

For the Devils things are shaping up nicely with all three lines chipping in goals but the ones to watch (again just on stats) are -
 
Andrew Lord  6 Goals and 11 assists
Joey Martin 4 Goals and 12 assists
Jake Morrisette 6 Goals and 8 assists
Joey Haddad 6 Goals and 5 assists
Brent Walton  5 Goals and 6 assists

In nets Ben Bowns is doing well with a 90.6% save percentage and a 2.61 Goals against average.

Devils will I assume be without Carl Hudson who took a puck to the hand in Sheffield last week and as things stand I can’t see any news on the Blaze squad injury front so it looks like they will be at full strength.

Details of the two games are as follows -

Saturday Night in Cardiff- 7:00 pm face off
Web cast details here

Sunday Night in Coventry- 5:15 pm face off
Webcast details here

We will attempt to run the 'ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased' Match Night Live service for these games, if we can as always expect name calling, slurs and bad jokes about keepers not being able to stop beach balls in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

If you'd like to chip in with a comment or make a score prediction on the night you can contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.