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- Early Start For Devils At The Play Off Finals
Cardiff Devils play in the early semi-final at the PredictorBet play-off finals weekend in Nottingham on Saturday.
Head coach Andrew Lord and his Devils play Fife Flyers with a 1pm face-off at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham.
That is followed by Sheffield Steelers v Nottingham Panthers at 5pm.
Devils are top seeds for the play-offs after winning the Elite League title and Flyers finished seventh.
Lord’s team defeated eighth seeds Coventry Blaze 8-5 over two legs in their quarter-final, while Flyers earned an outstanding victory at Manchester Storm.
Coach Ryan Finnerty and his Stormtroopers earned a 4-1 win during the first half in Kirkcaldy and were hot favourites to progress, but Flyers battled to a 5-1 win in the return at Altrincham Ice Rink.
An overtime goal earned Fife a 6-5 aggregate victory when Carlo Finucci scored with a backhand 47 seconds into sudden death overtime.
Head coach Todd Dutiaume’s Fife went ahead in the second leg when Dannick Gauthier scored (4-19) and Finucci added a second (21-14).
Jim Jorgensen made it 3-0, 4-4 on aggregate, when his shot on the powerplay deflected in off a Manchester player.
Storm were looking for a high stick call and referees Neil Wilson and Stefan Hogarth reviewed the effort. They decided the goal would stand.
Mike Hammond put Manchester back in front on aggregate when he fired a shot through traffic to beat netminder Andy Iles at 36-47.
Liam Heelis levelled the aggregate score at 46-31, putting Flyers 4-1 up on the night and the match went into overtime.
Gauthier and Chase Schaber had chances inside the opening 30 seconds of overtime before Finucci fired the winner and Flyers fans celebrated wildly.
Cardiff Devils, Sheffield Steelers, Nottingham Panthers and Fife Flyers will compete in next week’s PredictorBet Play-Off Finals weekend.
All four confirmed their place after winning their quarter finals and will all converge on Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena where the winner will be crowned on Sunday.
As is tradition, the two semi-finals will be played on Saturday, with the first game beginning at 1pm then the second last four tie at 5pm.
The losers of these games will meet in a bronze medal game on Sunday at 12 noon, with the Final at 4pm, which will be shown live on the BBC.
Last year’s final saw Sheffield Steelers triumph over Cardiff Devils in an epic game that lasted 93 minutes, where they won 7-6 after double overtime.
The Steelers are back this year after overcoming Guildford Flames 9-7 on aggregate, winning 5-2 at home on Saturday before being defeated 5-4 at Guildford on Sunday.
They’ll face deadly rivals Nottingham Panthers, who edged past Belfast Giants in their quarter-final, winning 8-7 on aggregate, winning the tie in overtime.
Cardiff, Fife, Sheffield and Nottingham are the last four teams standing in the play-offs and they go for glory this weekend.
Supporters of all 12 Elite League teams will be at the Motorpoint Arena for the finals.
Saturday, April 7
Cardiff Devils vs Fife Flyers (1pm)
Sheffield Steelers vs Nottingham Panthers (5pm)
Sunday, April 8
Bronze Medal Game (Noon)
Grand Final (4pm).
