Fire Go For National League Cup Success At Ice Arena Wales

Cardiff’s Ice Arena Wales will host the National Ice Hockey League Division Two Cup Final weekend in April.

Home city club Cardiff Fire have qualified for the finals, to be held over the weekend of Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9, and are on course to complete a trophy treble.

Unfortunately, the NIHL finals clash with the Elite League play-offs weekend in Nottingham when hundreds of Cardiff Devils fans are due to head north.

Many of those would have enjoyed watching Cardiff Fire going for cup glory.

Peterborough Islanders and Swindon Wildcats are also through to the NIHL finals and will be joined by Slough Jets or Wightlink Buccaneers.

On Saturday the first semi-final will start at 2.30pm face-off with Peterborough playing Slough or Wightlink.

The second game, Cardiff Fire v Swindon, will face off at 6.30pm.

Ticket prices for fans are: Weekend ticket £12 adult (covering all three games); Concessions (including 12-16 year olds) £6 for weekend ticket.

Single match prices are £6 (adult), £3 (concessions) and £1 (children under 12).

Fire and Peterborough are both unbeaten in their league campaigns and both are aiming to win a trophy treble, having already won their respective league titles.

Richard Carpenter, from the NIHL League management committee, said: “We’ve had some superb weekends since we adopted the finals weekend format in 2013, none more so than last years event at Alexandra Palace, but we are always thrilled to bring this event to a new location.

“Ice Arena Wales, one of the newest ice rinks in the country, is a magnificent facility and will make a superb location for the finals of this competition.”

Coach Mark Cuddihy and his Cardiff Fire team have a 100 per cent record this season, taking their winning streak to 17 matches with victories against Wightlink Buccaneers (10-1) and Basingstoke Buffalo (6-1).

Fire have already clinched top spot for a second successive season, but have one more fixture to play. That is against Swindon at the Link Centre this weekend.

They will then focus on the finals weekend at the IAW in Cardiff Bay.