Joey Haddad’s Glowing Report On Cardiff Devils Team-mate Chris Culligan

Cardiff Devils players are in awe of Chris Culligan’s ability to switch effortlessly between offence and defence.

‘Culli’ operated on D during Devils 4-1 win against Dundee Stars, combining that role with a stint up front on the powerplay, before switching to forward at Sheffield Steelers.

“Culli is such a smart player, his hockey IQ is through the roof,” said Culligan’s fellow Nova Scotian and team-mate Joey Haddad. “It’s remarkable that he can switch between the two and still play at such a high level.

“I’m convinced that if we needed somebody to take a stint as goaltender he could do a great job.

“He has unbelievable talent in being able to switch from forward to defence. Earlier this season he was on D a little more consistently, but this time it came at a time when he hadn’t done that for a while.

“It was awesome to see how well he played. He is a massive asset to our team.”

Culligan is in his third season with Cardiff and his versatility has proved invaluable to head coach Andrew Lord.

“Culli did one heck of a job on D,” said Lord. “It’s unbelievable that he can step back and give us such quality minutes.”

The 28-year-old former Cape Breton Screaming Eagles player covered for Mark Louis, who was suffering from food poisoning, against Stars and produced a faultless display.

The next evening, with Louis back on the ice, Culligan returned to his role among the forwards.

He will be in the Devils team for this weekend’s Elite League clashes with Sheffield Steelers away on Saturday (7pm) and Fife Flyers at Ice Arena Wales the next day (6pm).

League leaders Devils could be crowned champions this weekend, particularly if Steelers can win against Cardiff’s closest rivals Belfast Giants away on Friday.

Welshman Jonathan Phillips, Sheffield’s captain, says: “Firstly we want to finish as high up the league as we can.

“Belfast are a few points ahead of us. The gap is there to be closed and we want to do just that.

“We’ve won there before and can do so again.

“The travel is tough, but we have coped with that kind of schedule before and will come back to another big night against Cardiff on Saturday.

“We are still league champions and proud of that. It’s accepted that Devils have one and a half hands on the trophy, but we don’t want them lifting it in our rink

“Matches against these two teams are perfect for us. We don’t need meaningless fixtures right now and our aim is to get into gear ahead of the play-offs.

“We want proper, tough games and I guess they don’t get any tougher than these two.”

Sunday’s match against Fife Flyers is virtually sold out with only around 20 tickets remaining, while their clash with Belfast Giants on Saturday week is already guaranteed a capacity attendance.

Ticket information is available from the club’s official website or via the hotline on 0800 0842 666.