Devils Put Their ‘Hard Hats’ On For Victory at Flyers

Fife Flyers 2, Cardiff Devils 5

Andrew Lord’s ‘hard-nosed’ Cardiff Devils powered to a crucial Elite League victory against Fife Flyers in Scotland after producing an outstanding third period performance.

Devils led 2-0 going into the second and were rocked by a two-goal Flyers recovery before easing to victory. 

“I loved then first,” said coach Lord. “We were flying – and came out almost perfect. Fife is a hard place to play.

“Maybe we were complacent or something because we did not come out with nearly the same jump in the second. 

“The guys regrouped for the third and that was great, a real hard-nosed period. We were fore-checking, back-checking, had our hard hats on and all in all this was an important win for us.”

Fife are bottom of the Elite League table and coach Todd Dutiaume said: “We came out looking totally unprepared score. The score could have been significantly worse than it turned out.

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“In the second period we were better team and had a bit of life about ourselves, but the third was lacklustre. I say that too many times.”

Devils scored three goals in the final 20 minutes, winning thanks to goals from Charles Linglet, Matt Pope, Mike McNamee, Joey Haddad and Gleason Fournier.

Cardiff welcomed back Sam Duggan after injury, but were again without Shaone Morrisonn with Bryce Reddick playing alongside Sam Jardine on D.

It took only 80 seconds for Linglet to open the scoring when he finished off a pass from Stephen Dixon with linemate Joey Haddad drawing the other assist.

Pope netted his fifth goal in the last seven games to give the Devils a 2-0 lead on a powerplay (9-22) with Gleason Fournier and Mike McNamee assisting.

The middle period belonged to Flyers as they scored twice to tie the game up after 40 minutes. Carlo Finucci made it 2-1 at 21-28 and Mike Cazzola scored less than four minutes later.

Haddad fired his 23rd goal of the season at 43-56, while Fournier (55-24) and McNamee (58-43) completed the victory.

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Match stats:

Scorers, Flyers: Carlo Finucco 1+1, Mike Cazzola 1+1, Tim Crowder 0+1, 

Devils: Charles Linglet 1+0, Matt Pope 1+0, Mike McNamee 1+1, Joey Haddad 1+1, Gleason Fournier 1+2, Stephen Dixon 0+1, Sean McMonagle 0+1, Joey Martin 0+1, Matthew Myers 0+1 

Period scores (Flyers first): 0-2; 2-0 (2-2); 0-3 (2-5)

Shots on goal: Flyers (on Ben Bowns) 11+13+5=29, Devils (on Adam Morrison) 14+11+15=40

Penalties in minutes: Flyers 2+2+2=6; Devils 2+2+0=4

Powerplays: Flyers 2, Devils 3

Face-offs won: Flyers 21, Devils 36

Man of the match: Mike McNamee

Referees: Ladislav Smetana, Toby Craig

Attendance: 1,199

Cardiff Devils team: 

Goalies: Ben Bowns (back-up Thomas Murdy)

First line: Mark Richardson, Gleason Fournier, Blair Riley, Joey Martin, Masi Marjamaki

Second line: Bryce Reddick, Sam Jardine, Joey Haddad, Stephen Dixon, Charles Linglet

Third line: Mark Louis, Sean McMonagle, Matt Pope, Mike McNamee, Sean Bentivoglio 

Fourth line: Sam Duggan, Matthew Myers, Josh Batch