Cardiff Devils Suffer Devastating Elite League Defeats

Cardiff Devils suffered more Elite League pain, conceding 15 goals in two defeats.

Coach Andrew Lord’s team had won six successive matches before this latest shocking run, but have now gone down in their last three fixtures. That inconsistency is inflicting damage on Devils’ title hopes.

Devils came out hard against Fife Flyers at home, intent on bouncing back following a midweek loss in Dundee.

They led 5-1 inside 30 minutes, but then ran into penalty trouble and crashed 8-6.

Fife’s fightback stunned Devils fans and their team headed to Nottingham Panthers fired up for a clash with the League leaders.

They were in front twice and led 3-2 going into the final period, but went down 7-4 and now go into a run of three matches in five days.

Lord’s men travel to Fife on Saturday, play Belfast Giants at home on Sunday and then make the trip to Edinburgh Capitals the following Wednesday.

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Devils scored the only goal of the first period when Matt Pope and Sean Bentivoglio set up Gleason Fournier after eight minutes 45 seconds.

Panthers battled back and took the lead through Mark Derlago (21-40) and Yann Sauve (28-43), but Devils hit back when Matt Pope tied it at 2-2 with Gleason Fournier adding the lone assist (31-08).

Andrew Hotham fired Devils in from when he took a Tyson Strachan pass and scored to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.

The third period belonged to Panthers, scored five times to emerge winners.

Mathieu Gagnon levelled the scores less than two minutes into the final period and Panthers took control, netting through Brett Perlini (54-17) and Robert Lachowicz (55-31).

Devils coaching staff opted to pull the netminder for an extra skater when they had a late powerplay with three minutes 44 seconds left to play, but the move backfired as Eric Lindhagen scored short-handed into an empty net goal at 56-30 to give the home side the 6-3 lead.

Jake Morissette scored for the Devils on the powerplay (58-06) to pull one back for the Devils, but another empty-net goal for Panthers, this time from Robert Farmer sealed Nottingham’s 7-4 win.

It was a desperately disappointing end to a game Devils were in control of with 20 minutes left to play, but for the second successive night, Devils fell apart in the final period to lose another valuable two points.

Defeat in Nottingham was a massive blow after Cardiff’s collapse against Fife on Saturday.

Hotham scored on the powerplay 55 seconds in and the big D-man netted again at 6-49 before Josh Batch made it 3-0 (8-02).

Flyers pulled one back with a powerplay goal at 11-17 from Carlo Finucci to make it 3-1, which is how the first period ended.

Devils looked to be in complete control midway through the game after scoring another two goals, the first from Joey Martin on the powerplay at 21-49 and a second from Bryce Reddick (28-13).

At 5-1 ahead Devils were in complete control, but they fell apart after Drew Paris was called for a five minute major plus a game misconduct for checking to the head.

The resulting powerplay saw the Flyers score three times, once with the Devils down 5 on 3 and twice when they were one man down.

Goals from Danick Gauthier (31-09), Chase Schaber (32-58) and Finucci with his second of the game (34-56) pulled the Flyers within one after two periods.

There was brief joy for Devils when Justin Faryna scored (41-41) on the powerplay to make it 6-4, but then it was all Flyers.

Devils gave up a shorthanded goal at 45-52 to Evan Bloodoff, then Gauthier scored back to back powerplay goals at 48:56 and 50:13 to tie the game and then put the Flyers ahead for the first time.

Gauthier finished the game with an empty net goal at 59-46 to complete a third period hat-trick and a four-goal game.

Devils powerplay was 3/9 on the night, but it was the penalty kill that let them down. Flyers scored six powerplay goals out of seven opportunities to complete the comeback and shock the near sell-out crowd at Ice Arena Wales.