Its been a mixed season so far for both the Cardiff Devils and the Sheffield Steelers neither have had many four point weekends yet but one of them is guaranteed one this weekend. with all the off-ice problems in Cardiff in the last few weeks the Devils would still manage to win in Hull on Saturday evening with a convincing scorline of 4-1 with goals from Matthew Myers, Jake Morrisette, Tomas Kurka and Mac Faulkner as the Devils would out shoot the Stingrays 20-7. The players to watch for the Devils are Dan Lacosta, Matthew Myers and as always the ever dangerous Mac Faulkner. The Steelers would love a four point weekend at this point of the season after defeating arch rivals the Nottingham Panthers last Saturday at home and then conceding 5 goals to them on the Sunday in the final period to lose 6-1 the Sheffield Steelers will definalty be looking to put that to the back of their minds by securing another two points after being the Dundee Stars 4-1 at Ice Sheffield on Saturday night. The Steelers would out shoot the Stars 39-16 and would more than deserve the points especially now the power play is beginning to click, goals Jeff Legue who would score two power play goals as well as Rob Sirianni as the Steelers would go 3/6 on the man advantage and then Aaron Nell would wrap up the scoring with an even strength goal midway through the third period. Now the players to watch for the Sheffield Steelers are Jeff Legue who is one point away from his 500th Elite League point, Rob Sirianni, Stefan Meyer, Drew Fata and captain Steven Geortzen. My Prediction for this game will be for a Sheffield Steelers victory.
1st Period starts with Dan Lacosta in goal for the Devils and Frank Doyle in between the pipes for the Steelers, The Steelers would be without Kohn and Dowd tonight and off-course Lacroix who isn't back till the new year, Steelers would start fast as Sirianni would get through on goal and force a good save out of Lacosta after 10 seconds but it would be the Steelers that would take the first penalty of the night as Mark Thomas would get called for tripping at 00:40, the power play would be successfully killed along with a big hit from Phil Hill on a Cardiff Devil as he returns to the big blue tent for the first time since being released possibly with a point to prove. The hosts would take the lead though on 03:12 when Devils Captain Mac Faulker would receive the puck from Tomas Kurka to back hand it into an empty net. Sheffield would have the opportunity to hit back straight away on the power play as Chris Blight went for tripping on 03:49 but a fantastic kill from the Devils as they would block shots and take away as many shooting opportunities as possible. Steelers would get another power play but it wouldn't last long as Steelers would be called for too many men and we'd go to 4 on 4 hockey. There would be an incident on the ice involving Tim Spencer now I'm not entirely sure what went on but Gord Baldwin would eventually go for holding of the stick but what ever happened Spencer wasn't happy about it. Steelers would try their best to create offence along with a power play opportunity that would end up as 4 on 4 hockey again but once both teams were back to full strength a goal created by Langlais would be pocked in by Stefan Meyer to level the score at 17:38. poor a discipline by the Steelers throughout the 1st period as on 18:04 gifted the Devils with a 5th power play opportunity but the period would end all square.
2nd Period started with Devils still on the power play and it was successfully killed and Steelers would create some strong attacking play and would want a goal but Darnell said no goal as I believe the net was of its moorings, end to end stuff so far throughout the first and second period and a strange moment occurred when the puck would bobble along the crossbar and almost bounce in but Frank Doyle would cover up for a face off. Cardiff would break 2 on 1 and Frank Doyle would turn up with a big chest save and then Spencer and Plumpton would have words with each other while their both on the way back to their respective benches. Stefan Meyer playing very well and skating hard would try and take the lead of the Steelers but Lacosta would cover up the puck, Doug Christiansen must want more physicality in the Steelers game while the Steelers have been getting physical finishing of hits with a big one from Drew Fata as he put Ben Davies on the floor. Sheffield would be let of the hook when Gord Baldwin falls to let Matthew Myers in on goal and he dekes Doyle and has an empty net but would some how be miss the opportunity to give the hosts the lead. Steelers would get the only PP of the period at 30:42 as Tyson Marsh would go for Boarding and it would be an excellent penalty kill the Devils. The rest of the period would go without incident with Doyle and Lacosta both having to make good saves but the 2nd Period would finish all square again.
3rd Period got underway with the same intensity as the rest of the game so far and Mac Faulkner would put the first shot of the period wide, it would soon be followed up by a big glove save straight of a face off from a Chad Langlais shot on Dan Lacosta. Steelers would have a lot of puck possession in the early stages of the third period but Cardiff would defend extremely well taking away shooting lanes, the game would start getting feisty with lots of hit flying in and a coming together with Brad Plumpton having words with ex teammate Phil Hill, Frank Doyle would carry on to keep Sheffield in the game saving several shots while on the floor with Cardiff beginning to control the game and would get one more power play opportunity as Legue would get called for hooking, at 51:01 a call which he wasn't impressed with but the Devils wouldn't be able to make it count. There would be a time when Doyle was sliding across the crease and take the net of its moorings but even the commentators were talking about how the net at the cafeteria end comes of its moorings a lot easier than the other net. Doyle would continue to keep Steelers in the game but at 57:17 Jake Morrisette would wrist one in front of goal to give Cardiff the lead with under three minutes remaining, Steelers would take a timeout with 44 seconds left and pull Frank Doyle and play 6v5 at the hope of nicking a draw but Chris Blight would get possession in the neutral zone and shoot into the empty goal at 59:45 to give the Devils a 3-1 victory over the Sheffield Steelers.
FINAL SCORE: Cardiff Devils 3-1 Sheffield Steelers
Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Cardiff - 1-0-2-[8]-{0/6}-28
Sheffield - 1-0-0-[12]-{0/4}-31
So it's the Cardiff Devils that take a four point weekend as once again the Sheffield Steelers have to settle for a two point weekend, Chad Langlais picked up the Man of the Match award for the Sheffield Steelers and Chris Blight would receive the award for the Cardiff Devils. Next up for the Cardiff Devils is the Nottingham Panthers home and away next weekend while the Steelers travel to Hull on Saturday and then face the Fife Flyers at the Motorpoint Arena on Sunday.
Thanks for reading guys. Any questions or comments get in contact via Twitter or Email me at Tomwalkeden@gmail.com
Tom
@TomWalkeden
No comments:
Post a Comment