Hockey World, Hockey Girl - Week 10

12th Nov 2014 | Posted by Hollee Acott

Hello Devils' fans!

This weekend brought Adam Keefe and his Giants into the ring against our Cardiff Devils, with Keefe showing off his shiny new toy, former-NHLer Kevin Westgarth.  With both games standing room only, we were definitely treated to a show!

Saturday night saw an unfortunate loss for the boys in red.  Despite two powerplay goals and a lucky bounce on the penalty kill for Jesse Mychan, the Devils fell 7-4 in the O.

Things started slowly for the Devils, with number one pain Darryl Lloyd lighting up the scoreboard for the home side less than five minutes into the game.  Despite outshooting their rivals and going on the man advantage at 13:07 (with David Phillips in the box for holding), the Devils were not able to levelled the score until 17:57, when, with Dougie Clarkson in the box for elbowing, Jesse Mychan was in the right place at the right time, batting home a miss-pass from Robby Sandrock.

The big news this past week has been Giants’ new signing Kevin Westgarth.  The Windsor, Ontario native has spent most of the past five seasons playing in the top flight, icing for 169 NHL games in his career.  Coming from the Calgary Flames last season, Westgarth has also played for current Stanley Cup Champions the LA Kings, as well as the Carolina Hurricanes.  From a girl’s prospective, I am very jealous!  Imagine spending all that time with those Staal brothers…!

But anyway, there was certainly a lot of hype surrounding the Canadian’s debut – and what an impression he made!

Just four minutes into the second period, the new number 15 took a lovely pass from Ray Savada before shooting the puck glove side on Benny Bowns to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

Recently, I have discovered the wonder that is HTMI cables and am now forcing my entire family to watch the joy that is the Cardiff Devils on the big TV in the living room.  Good job too, because my laptop screen would not have done Josh Batch justice in that second period on Saturday night!

With a right and a left and another right, Josh had me on my feet in my living room, cheering as he showed Adam Keefe he could not push us around anymore.  For the past couple of seasons, Keefe has been the guy we all hate to love – coming into the BBT and showing us who is boss.  But from the looks of things on Saturday night, our young Brits are not going to stand for it anymore.

All I can say is, well done Batchy!

Despite spirits being lifted as the blood fell from Keefe’s eyebrow,  the Devils suffered through two quick Giants’ powerplay goals as Tyson Marsh sat for slashing.  Unfortunately for Bowns, the second goal (from Saurette at 29:00) saw him out of his net trying to retrieve the puck – which took an unlucky bounce and ended up at the end of Saurette’s stick in front of an empty net.

But we are never down and out!  After a horrible hit from behind on Andrew Hotham, Darryl Lloyd was awarded a 5+game, giving the Devils a five minute powerplay.  Man of the Weekend (forget man of the match! Although he did win that twice this past weekend…) Dougie Clarkson took full advantage and shot the puck home to lessen the deficit to two!

The Department of Player Safety reviewed Lloyd’s penalty and he was served with a one-match ban – leaving him out of Sunday’s rematch. (Any information on the decision and a video explanation can be found here: http://www.eliteleague.co.uk/one-match-ban-for-lloyd-p194631)

Ray Savada continued the Giants’ scoring streak at the beginning of the third period, assisted by Robby Sandrock and Mark Garside with just twenty six seconds played.

Captain Adam Keefe, Barbie plaster on his brow (kidding!), also pushed one past GB netminder Ben Bowns, forcing Bench Coach Neil Francis to pull the goalie and replace him with backup Mike Will – making his season debut for the Devils.

Despite the 6-2 deficit for the visiting side, our boys were determined to have one more go.  With less than ten minutes left in the game, no. 93 got his second goal of the night, while Calvin Elfring sat for delay of game, before Captain Tyson Marsh added the Devils’ fourth goal just a few minutes later.

With four minutes left to play, there was certainly time for the Welsh side to turn things around – we’ve seen them do it!  But, while the Devils’ did outshoot the Giants in the final period, the bounces were not going their way and Kevin Saurette finished off the game with an empty net goal with just over a minute left to play.

On the bright side, Mike Will finished the game with a 1.00 SV%.... Silver linings eh?

With only the plane ride home to dwell, 6pm Sunday came around quickly and everyone was ready for some revenge.

Both teams were icing short benched – Hudson, Culligan and Martin missing for the Devils, and Kompon, McCutcheon, Murphy and Lloyd missing for the Giants – but this certainly did not effect the intensity of the game!

As always, the Devils’ opened strong, throwing hit after hit – if it moved, it was going to be buried into the boards!  With his strong lead from the front ethos, Coach Andrew Lord demonstrated that we would not be giving an inch, let alone a mile!

Unfortunately, Darnell (our lovely ref for the weekend – not!) took offense to a couple of Lord’s hits and he found himself in the box twice before they’d even played more than half a period!

While the rest of the first period was relatively quiet – despite the high intensity of both teams – but all that tension came boiling over the top at the beginning of the second.

Kevin Westgarth was warmly welcomed into the BBT, by the Devils’ captain Tyson Marsh’s right hook, after Westgarth laid cancer-fighting Dr. Luke Piggot into the boards with a particularly hard hit.  While no. 15 is considered to be one of the toughest guys in the game (meaning that Lloyd has got someone to watch his back when he upsets people now), there was no way Marsh was letting him off for that one.  Westgarth had already tried to nail the Devils’ defenseman a couple of times without success, adding to the tension between the two Canadians.

Most would give the win to Westgarth for this one, but Tyson should definitely get major points for defending the doctor!

With tensions slightly satisfied, it was back to business.  Like the previous night, Belfast took the lead, with a goal from none other than Kevin Westgarth himself – his second goal of the weekend – at 33:31.

But the Welsh side had the crowd on their side, and Matt Myers rewarded the fans with an equaliser, nineteen seconds before the period break!

Things were neck and neck going into the final period and both teams were desperate to get that go-ahead goal!  Hell, I was desperate for that go-ahead goal!

I was quite impressed that I didn’t throw my dinner all over the floor when Joey Haddad sent the puck flying behind Andrew Dickson (who looked slightly nervous as he tripped onto the ice at the beginning of warm-ups – and yes, he literally tripped over as he stepped onto the ice!  The game hadn’t even started and he was giving the Red Army ammunition!), giving the Devils’ their first lead of the game.

And you know I could see Doug’s smile from Hereford when he added the Devils’ third goal of the night, and his third goal of the weekend!!  Despite taking a lot of criticism at the beginning of the season, Doug Clarkson has really stepped into his role in the BBT and now has seven goals so far this season, whilst demonstrating he will not be pushed around!  In my opinion, he definitely deserved the MOM awards this weekend.

3-1 up and it was looking good for the Devils coming into the second half of the final period; Bowns was holding his own and the forecheck was strong.

Despite Devils’ pressure, David Phillips managed to slip one past Bowns to bring Belfast within and suddenly it was all about defense!  Both Josh Batch (roughing @ 454:48) and Trevor Hendrikx (cross-checking @ 58:54) took unfortunate penalties in the closing minutes and in the final seconds and Dickson was pulled to create a 6-on-4 situation for the Devils.

All that mattered was blocking shot after shot until the buzzer sounded – I haven’t been that nervous since watching the final seconds of Game 7 in 2009!

Luckily time ran down, and with it ran the Devils’ with their two league points! 

Looking forward to this coming weekend, the Devils’ are off to Nottingham on Saturday, where they face a Panthers’ team sans Nathan Robinson after his departure this week.

Sunday sees the return of Chris Blight and Brad Plumton as the Stars come to town.

With the wonders of the Internet, there is no reason to miss either fixture!  Make sure you’re watching!!!

Let’s Go Devils!

Final Scores
Devils 4 – 7 Giants (Saturday)
Devils 3- 2 Giants (Sunday)

You can check out more from Hollee here including details of a trip to the States to take in a Penguins game  here  http://theworldofsportbyateengirl.blogspot.co.uk/