Sean Fires Treble To Clinch Triple Crown For Cardiff Devils

Cardiff Devils 4, Belfast Giants 3

Sean Bentivoglio fired a hat-trick in a Cardiff Devils win which clinched triple crown glory.

Coach Andrew Lord and his Devils team have now won the Elite League title, Challenge Cup and Erhardt Conference.

Their 4-3 win against Giants, the only team who could have caught them in the tough Erhardt section, ensure Devils have now won five trophies in three seasons since Lord took charge.

They are League champions for the first time in 20 years, while Lord’s men have won the Challenge Cup and Erhardt title twice each.

Devils play Belfast Giants at home again on Sunday (6pm) and the match already a 3,088 sell-out.

They will also find out on Sunday who they play in the play-off quarter-finals next weekend. Dundee Stars won against Fife Flyers 7-5 to make sure of seventh place and that means Devils will face Manchester Storm or Coventry Blaze.

Storm play Nottingham Panthers in their final League game on Sunday, while Blaze take on Sheffield Steelers.

Devils are top seeds for the play-offs and have already decided their home leg against Storm or Blaze will be held at Ice Arena Wales on Saturday, April 1 (7pm) with the return leg the next evening.

Cardiff have one more import than they are able to play in any one match and they rested Chris Culligan from the match against Belfast.

Bentivoglio opened the scoring against Giants after just 53 seconds, but Belfast drew level through Chris Higgins in the 13th minute to leave the teams tied at 1-1 after the first period.

Devils lead was restored midway through the second period, Bentivoglio again the scorer, but the advantage lasted for less than two minutes as former NHL defenceman Jim Vandermeer fifed an unassisted goal.

Bentivoglio completed his hat-trick four minutes in to the final frame, taking his goals tally for the season to 19, while Matthew Myers increasing the Devils advantage to 4-2 in the 56th minute.

Belfast grabbed a late goal through David Rutherford to set up a tense finale, but Cardiff held firm to secure the points.

They have now won three trophies with one more, the play-offs, to play for over the next couple of weeks.

Match stats:

Scorers, Devils: Sean Bentivoglio 3+0, Matthew Myers 1+0, Gleason Fournier 0+2, Mark Louis 0+1, Layne Ulmer 0+1, Patrick Asselin 0+1, Denny Kearney 0+1, Guillaume Doucet 0+1.

Giants: Chris Higgins 1+0, Jim Vandemeer 1+0, David Rutherford 1+0, Blair Riley 0+1, Brandon Benedict 0+1, Matt Towe 0+1, Jerome Leduc 0+1.

Period scores (Devils first): 1-1; 1-1 (2-2); 2-1 (4-3).

Shots on goal: Devils (on Murphy) 10+8+7=25; Giants 11+11+10=32.

Penalties in minutes: Devils 4+6+0=10; Giants 0+4+2=6.

Powerplays: Devils 0/2; Giants 0/4.

Referee: Dean Smith.

Attendance: 3,088.