Game Preview - Devils Vs Blaze 3rd March

27th Feb 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Sunday night see’s the Devils return from a Double header in Belfast to take on the Coventry Blaze at home in Cardiff. This will be the ninth and potentially last game of the series with the score line currently standing at 4 games  apiece.   Blaze games this season have been feisty affairs with the Blaze playing a physical brand of hockey so this game promises to be one not to miss.

We took as good look at the blaze squad at the start of the season which you can check out here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-blaze-29th-september-730pm-face-off/ since then they’ve seem Gerome Giudice move on and have had Matt Belesky come and go and have seen the addition of Mike Bayrack and latest arrival forward Adam Henrich.

Last weekend saw the Blaze in action in Scotland taking on three teams over three nights first up they took on the Braehead Clan on Friday where the Blaze had suffered seven straight losses the Blaze got only their second win in Glasgow.

The home side opened the scoring as Matt Schepke slotted the puck past Peter Hirsch at 7.06. The visitors were back on level terms as Adam Henrich was on hand to score at 12.51. However, equality lasted only 65 seconds as on a delayed penalty call the Clan regained the lead as Kevin Phillips scored his first goal of the season. The hosts increased their lead as Schepke netted his second of the game at 18.42.

Blaze got themselves right back into the game early in the second period as Mike Egner fired in at 21.50. The Clan regained their two goal lead at 25.29 as Matt Schepke completed his hat trick. The visitors once again reduced the deficit to a single goal as Brad Leeb netted at 29.50. The game was on level terms at 32.59 as Derek Campbell netted the fourth goal for the Blaze.

Having share eight goals in the first two periods neither team could find the net in the third period. The game went into overtime to try and find a winner and with a penalty shootout looming Griffen popped up to net the winner and send the large traveling support onto their feet to claim the victory.

Final score Braehead Clan 4 – 5  Coventry Blaze

After their overtime win against Braehead last night, Coventry crossed over from the west coast of Scotland to the east coast, to take on Edinburgh in their second game of their Scottish triple header of the weekend.

The home side shocked the visitors as they took a two goal lead by the sixth minute with strikes 33 seconds apart. The first of these came on the powerplay from Brent Patry at 4.50 followed by a strike from Jordan Steel at 5.23. The Blaze pulled one back as Russell Cowley netted on the powerplay at 13.45. Last night’s game winner James Griffin got the visitors back on level terms at 16.14.

After a goalless second period two goals in less than a minute restored the Capitals two goal lead. The first of these came at 46.38 from Curtis Leinweber followed by Zembergs first goal at 47.11. The Capitals were creating more of the chances and this paid off as Zembergs got his second at 56.37. He then completed his hat trick at 58.32 to complete a great night’s work for Richard Hartmann’s team.

Final score Edinburgh Capitals 6 – 2  Coventry Blaze

Speaking after this game Blaze coach Paul Thompson had this to say 

"We were beaten by the better team. The days of coming in here and thinking it is going to be an easy game are long gone. There are no easy games in this league any more.”
 
"Edinburgh are a highly-skilled and well-drilled side and they have some talented players who can hurt you. I didn’t think it was a 6-2 game but Edinburgh deserved the win.”
 
"They stepped it up in the third period and got the job done. I thought James Griffin was our best player again, he has been outstanding for us in these last two games.”
 
"I want this defeat to hurt and now we will go to Fife tomorrow and look to take four points from this weekend."

Unfortunately while the defeat in Edinburgh might have hurt they didn’t take the two points in Fife on Sunday. Only leaders Nottingham have better home numbers than the Kirkcaldy side and after the opening period in this game everything was going to form.

Flyers opened the scoring at 13.57 on the powerplay with a goal by Derek Keller and then at 18.34 Zack Carriveau doubled their advantage.

Blaze were given hope with an early second period strike from skipper Shea Guthrie timed at 21.15 and despite Flyers still having more of the play it was a 2-2 hockey game at 32.15 with Brad Leeb leveling for the visitors.

Into period three and the vital go-ahead goal came to Flyers early when Dutiaume was on target at 42.09 and despite numerous close shaves at both ends after that there was to be no more scoring and Flyers hung on for the win that moves them up to sixth place in the league standings. 

Final Score Fife Flyers 3 - 2 Coventry Blaze

Speaking after the loss to Fife coach Paul Thompson  had this to say–

 "It was a really good game and at 2-2 I always thought the next goal was going to win it.”

"We have really missed Adam Henrich this weekend, I am sure he would have got on the end of some of the chances we created. We could have put him out there tonight but we were worried he would aggravate his injury and we did not want to take any risks.”

"We have a tired group right now. It has been a long weekend on the road and I am disappointed we have only got the two points. I was annoyed with our effort in the third period in Edinburgh last night but I cannot fault them tonight, it just did not go our way.”

"But we have got six games left and four of them are at home. It is still in our hands to claim fourth spot."

Looking at the scoring for the Blaze the ones to watch are clearly Dustin Cameron on 21 goals  who’s netted 4 times on the Devils , Shea Guthrie on 16 goals who’s netted 4 times on the Devils, Greg Leeb on 15 goals who’s netted 4 times on the Devils and Mike Schutte on 12 goals  who’s netted twice on the Devils.  

In nets the Blaze have Peter Hirsch who’s save % is running at 91.5% with a goals against average of 3.11

The Blaze squad have had some injury issues with Adam Henrich possibly returning to the line-up for this  week while  Sam Smith will be assessed over the next few days after suffering a reaction to his knee injury in warm-up in addition to Sam possibly being out there is the possibility that   Mike Bayrack will be missing after he sustained a nasty cut to the hand. The Blaze also play the Dundee Stars at the Skydome on Saturday before their game with us.
Scoring by us

We’ve run up some good scores against the Blaze this season with the ones to watch for the Devils being Stuart MacRae on 5 goals, Chris Blight on 4 goals, Max Birbraer on 3 goals, Ben Davies on 3 goals and late arrival Jesse Gimblett on 2 goals against the Blaze this season.

The Devils have two tough games in Belfast in the run up to this game and already have a question mark over Josh Batch who’s undergoing scans this week so it’s hard to know which of our players won’t have been maimed by the Giants before the game Sunday.

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.