Hockey World, Hockey Girl - Week 2

Good Evening!!!

Looks like we’ve had an interesting weekend of Cardiff Devils’ hockey gone by, after an unfortunate loss against the Nottingham Panthers on Saturday night in a joint league/challenge cup matchup – only for the boys to steam roll the Coventry Blaze in an exhilarating third period last night!

Throughout the entire 120 minutes of Devils’ hockey this weekend we’ve seen 11 goals, 134 PIMs, 1 bleeding referee and a bruised fan!  And, due to a mean boss who likes me to work all hours of the day and night, I’ve had a great day off catching up on everything that has happened over the past few days!

Saturday saw the Red Army make the long trip up to Nottingham, which, despite a valiant effort from everyone, ended 3-1 in favour of the home side.

Both sides saw a quick start to the game, with Panthers’ Bruce Graham driving a hole through the Devils’ defence after just over 6 minutes to put his side ahead, dropping the puck in the back of the net after picking up his own rebound.  However, it seems the cats’ whiskers were out of place just a few short minutes later as Chris Culligan evened up the score, gliding through the large space left open in the middle of the Panthers’ blue line, after Greg Jacina took an early trip to the penalty box for hooking.

Goal scorer Graham was quick to follow Jacina to the box for slashing but despite the Devils’ tremendous record on the powerplay this weekend, the score remained tied.  That is until Max Langelier-Parent (anyone else feeling sorry for the announcers on that one? Just me?) added another to the home side’s tally, giving them the advantage going into the second period. 

The second twenty saw plenty of bums on seats as Mike Hicks put his whisle to good use – handing out nearly half of the total PIMs for the night.  Unfortunately for the visiting fans, while the Devils have done extremely well so far on the penalty kill, the Panthers’ were able to steal the puck despite being a man down and Cody Wild managed to put the puck five-hole, scoring what would become the game winning goal with just under half the period remaining.

With tensions running high, we all kind of expected some handbags – it’s Nottingham after all!  While there were some roughing incidents early on (and I’m not just talking about Devils’ fan Helen Drane putting a dent in the puck with her arm!), the main event of the night was between Jesse Mychan and Charles Landry mid-way through the third.

After Landry decided Mychan was a bit to close to Craig Kowalski (who we all know can look after himself, usually in the dirtiest way possible), blood was shed, Landry was escorted off to be patched up and both players were awarded five for fighting with a direct ticket to the box – words all hockey fans love to hear, wouldn’t you agree?

In both games over the weekend our boys in reddy-green have demonstrated that they are a force to be reckoned with, whether we are playing with 5 skaters or not!  The special teams are something the guys have struggled with over the past few seasons; I distinctly remember someone comparing our power plays to the disastrous Welsh lineouts from the 2012 6 Nations (remember those? Ouch!) But this year, it seems the tables are turning!!!

While many are insisting the Devils’ dominated from start to end against the Coventry Blaze last night, the score board showed a late turn in the team’s favour with a fantastic four-goal third period, three of which all happened in the space of 6 minutes!

As with many Cardiff-Coventry match ups, there were plenty of hits, chirps and all round nastiness.  Sunday’s game saw almost 90 penalty minutes awarded to the two teams – in total, not individually thank goodness!

And it wasn’t just the players getting a bit roughed up; referee Dean Smith was treated to a fat lip, thanks to the glove of Blaze no. 14, Cale Tanaka – wonder what that was about?!

The Red Army had plenty to cheer about throughout the game, especially with summer signing Doug Clarkson damaging the rink’s structural stability with Blaze-sized holes!  After a brilliant pre-season, Clarkson had a slow start in the opening weekend, possibly due to the lack of playing time he put in last year whilst recovering from injury, but came back to prove his metal this week against some of the toughest guys in the league.

To say that Blocks 2 and 3 enjoy watching Egener run and hide from the big Ontario native would be an understatement!

Thanks to Cescon and Goertzen, the Blaze were flying high going into the final period – despite being knocked down by each Devil that passed them.  Tensions were high but the home side did not disappoint.

As seems to be the fashion this year, the Cardiff boys fought hard for a comeback win that saw Coventry draw penalty after penalty – mainly because Brian Stewart couldn’t keep his hair on; he’s obviously never heard the phrase ‘sticks and stones’!  With three fabulous PPG to put the Welsh side in front, the Tent was rocking and looked like it was about to crumble as Jake Morrisette demonstrated why Player-Coach Andrew Lord fought to keep him in the Bay!

With just under four minutes left, Morrisette, with the help of Richardson and Martin (another great signing from the summer), ploughed his way through the Coventry defence and put the game out of reach.  While Jake was met with some doubts when he re-signed, there are no words to describe the beauty of his game winner last night!

Despite a last minute goal from a frantic visiting side, nothing could stop the Devils from finally claiming those well-deserved Challenge Cup points.

While we may have seen a topsy-turvy weekend in way of results, I think we have seen the beginning of a beautiful campaign, in both the League and finally the Challenge Cup.  The constantly changing jigsaw has eventually come together and I think we are all liking the picture we are seeing!

Everyone enjoy your week and prepare yourselves for this coming weekend, as the Clan travel down to the BBT on Saturday as Cardiff continue their league campaign in style!!  Make sure you’re there so we can give Ben Davies, Joe Myers (yay!!!!) and even Chris Frank a big ex-Devils’ welcome!!!

Scores

Nottingham 3 - 1 Cardiff

Cardiff 4 – 3  Coventry

You can check out more from Hollee here http://theworldofsportbyateengirl.blogspot.co.uk/