Hockey World, Hockey Girl - Week 8

Hello guys and girls! 

What a fantastic four-point weekend!  Facing the Coventry Blaze both home and away, our Cardiff Devils managed to bring home points in the League and the Challenge Cup, securing second place in the Challenge Cup group.

Saturday night not only saw an amazing comeback from 3-1 down to a 6-3 win for the Devils, but the news that NHLer, and former Devil, Paul Bissonnette would be re-joining our already talented squad.  Earning himself 21 points in only 11 games for the Welsh side, it is safe to say we were all extremely exciting to hear of his return.

But Andrew Lord and his team demonstrated that if Biz were to return to our ranks,which unfortunately is not the case anymore (http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/devils-news/bissonnette-deal-is-off/), he would only be a bonus to the skills already being showcased every night in the BBT.

Things started a bang for the Devils as both Trevor Hendrikx and Matt Myers redecorated the boards with Blaze-shaped holes!  The rough and tumble affair could only get better as Brent Walton went short side, top shelf with only three minutes on the clock! 

Unfortunately, despite the quick start, the Devils could not hold on to the intensity for the rest of the first – and found themselves 3-1 down going into the break, after the Blaze saw goals from Ben Arnt, Steven Goertzen and Ryan O’Marra respectively.

But hope was not lost, as forty-four seconds into the second period Andrew Hotham added his first tally of the night, as he came tumbling out of the penalty box, thanks to a delay of game minor at the end of the first.

Joey Martin also added to the scoreboard with the Devils’ fourth shorthanded goal of the season so far, sending the puck between the legs of Stewart – who was definitely getting a warm welcome from blocks two and three!!  I mean, even I could hear the taunting and I was a computer screen away from the action!

The Blaze found their selves with the man advantage again as they opened the third period, tied with the home side at three apiece.  Unfortunately for the visiting team, the Devils are on fire on the penalty kill this season and Andrew Hotham was able slot in a rebound to add his second of the night, and the Devils’ second straight short handed goal – putting their shorthanded tally up to five for the season. 

With Andrew Lord leading from the front on how to deal with the pesky Blaze (and seeming to enjoy putting them through the boards whenever possible!), alternate captain Jake Morrisette was busy adding his seventh goal of the season, tipping the puck passed a very agitated Stewart with just short of twelve minutes left in the game.

To round off the scoring Chris Jones showed off the skills learnt in the Devils’ development programme and picked some Blaze pockets before getting the puck to Joey Haddad.  As with the luck of the Welsh on Saturday night, Joey could not miss and the Devils’ finished out the game with a 6-3 score and retained those all-important League points!

Sunday saw the Devils and the Red Army travelling up to the SkyDome for some Challenge Cup action.  With the Blaze only holding one win in six Challenge Cup games, they were desperate to finish the competition on a high note.

Now we all know that very few rinks can rise to the challenge when it comes to the noise inside the BBT but from what I saw of the webcast on Sunday (which wasn’t a lot as most who tried to watch the game will understand!), the most noise on Sunday was coming from the away block – and for good reason!

Despite being on Blaze turf, crowd favourite Ben Bowns earned himself his first shutout of the year, after the Devils’ cruised to a 4-0 victory over a depleted Coventry side.  After a good start to the season, you have to wonder what has happened to Marc LeFebvre’s side.

The only Devil missing from both weekend games was Carl Hudson, after he suffered a hand injury against Sheffield last Saturday – which, it was announced over the webcast on Sunday, could leave him out for up to 6 weeks.  Bench Coach Neil Francis was suspended for Saturday’s game, while Trevor Hendrikx did not ice on Sunday for reasons unknown.

With only 14 PIMs between the two teams over the entire 60 minutes, the stats almost show a boring game compared to Devils/Blaze match ups in the past.  In fact there were no penalties in the third period at all!

While penalties were lacking – which could be considered an improvement on the silly penalties the Devils’ were taking just a couple of weeks ago – the Welsh side still managed to earn themselves a powerplay goal.  With the tally standing at 23 PP goals so far this season, that means nearly half of all goals scored, in all competitions, this year are on the man advantage.

Definitely an improvement on previous years, eh?

But that comes later.  Almost like déjà vu, Brent Walton opened the scoring just before the first period close – a goal that nearly all viewers at home missed due to webcast technical problems.  As I was one of these unfortunate many, I have been promised it was a very pretty goal, with the feed coming from Josh Batch before Walton found the narrowest channel possible!

The second period saw both Joey Martin and Doug Clarkson increasing the deficit, with Clarkson adding that PP goal.

To round off the game, Andrew Hotham added the fourth just two minutes into the third period – another goal that most of us missed, and didn’t learn about until about 5 minutes from the end of the game!  Safe to say I was glad to get my money back after that technical debacle!

After a thrilling weekend, it’s time to look ahead to next week.  Unfortunately the Devils have only got the one game – a visit from the Nottingham Panthers on Sunday.  It would have been nice to have been welcoming Biz back to the Tent, but never mind!

Make sure you get yourself down to the BBT!!  I’ll be cheering from across the Atlantic, as I venture over the pond to watch my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins this coming weekend – so let’s fill the Tent so I can show the Yanks what a hockey night should really look like!

Let’s Go Devils!

Final Scores –

Devils 6 - 3 Blaze (Saturday)

Devils 4 – 0 Blaze (Sunday)

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