Special Teams Lead Cardiff Devils To Awayday Success

Cardiff Devils’ powerplay and penalty kill units led their team to a 5-3 Elite League victory against Fife Flyers in Kirkcaldy.

Paul Crowder and Layne Ulmer scored PP goals, giving Devils a two from four record in the game, while Flyers failed to break down Cardiff’s PK in five attempts.

The success of Cardiff’s special teams was crucial in a hard-fought match.

Devils twice came from behind and earned victory against a Flyers team who had beaten Sheffield Steelers the day before.

Head coach Andrew Lord and his team were coming off a 7-2 Challenge Cup win and they started well with Gleason Fournier scoring inside three minutes.

Craig Moore, returning to his home town of Kirkcaldy, and Bryce Reddick added the assists.

Flyers led 2-1 going into the second period, but man of the match Joey Martin and Crowder (PP) scored to make it 3-3 after 40 minutes.

Devils’ PP unit went to work again in the third and it was Ulmer who blasted in a pass from Matt Pope at 46-15 to give the Devils a 4-3 lead.

Flyers pressed hard and pulled their goaltender Andy Iles for an extra skater, but were left down and out when Crowder scored his second goal of the match. He waited out the Flyers defence before tucking his shot into the empty net at 58-44.

Ben Bowns stopped 19 of the 22 shots he faced for the win, while Martin picked up the man of the match for the second successive night.

Devils were again without Patrick Asselin, Mark Richardson, Joey Haddad and Justin Fauna, who are all injured, but coach Lord is hopeful two or three to those will be available against Sheffield Steelers at home next Saturday.

Match stats: 

Scorers, Flyers: Carlo Finucci 1+0, Danick  Gauthier 1+0, Chase Schaber 1+1, James Isaacs 0+1, James Jorgensen 0+2.

Devils: Paul Crowder 2+0, Gleason Fournier 1+0, Joey Martin 1+0, Layne Ulmer 1+0, Bryce Reddick 0+1, Craig Moore 0+1, Sean Bentivoglio 0+1, Matt Pope 0+1, Andrew Hotham 0+2, Jake Morissette 0+1.

Period scores (Flyers first): 2-1; 1-2 (3-3); 0-2 (3-5).

Shots on goal: Flyers (on Bowns) 9+7+6=22; Devils (on Iles) 10+13+7=30.

Stars of the game: Flyers, Carlo Finucci; Devils, Joey Martin.

Referee: Pavel Halas.

Attendance: 1,704.

Elite League results, Sunday: Edinburgh 3 Belfast 4; MK Lightning 3 Manchester 2; Steelers 6 Braehead Clan 0; Guildford 2, Dundee 2 (match abandoned with ice deemed unplayable).