Devils hit four in first to extinguish Blaze

Photo: Scott Wiggins

A blistering opening period helped the Cardiff Devils to two Premier sports Challenge Cup points over Coventry at the Skydome on Sunday night.

Cardiff thought they'd taken the league early on only for the goal to be washed out due to Sam Duggan colliding with Blaze netminder CJ Motte behind the net. That didn't deter the Devils however and they took the lead with 5:19 played as a pass through into the offensive zone from Justin Crandall found Stephen Dixon, and his quick release beat Motte high.

Just over three minutes later, a Ben O'Connor stretch pass found Trevor Cox who set up Cole Sanford for the backdoor finish to double the Devils' lead. 31 seconds later it got worse for the hosts as a nice pass from O'Connor set up Sanford for his second of the night, and by 14:37 Josh Waller made it 4-0.

Justin Hamonic was ejected on a five plus game misconduct for interference for a big hit as the period ended on a more feisty note between the teams.

With Hamonic's penalty successfully killed off the Blaze pushed for a way back into the game, though struggled to create many clear-cut chances to trouble Taran Kozun. 25 minutes in, Devils' Mark Louis was ejected for boarding that caused Mathew Thompson to also leave the game bleeding. The Blaze, however, couldn't find a way back into things on the five-minute advantage and were made to pay some six minutes later when a miss-shot from Stephen Dixon put the puck into the path of Justin Crandall for a simple tap-in.

Kozun's shutout hopes were ruined 80 seconds into the final period after a well-timed saucer pass from Johnny Curran set up Janne Kivilahti for the Blaze's first of the night.

Inside the final six minutes, Ryan Penny batted in a rebound from a blueline shot for the Blaze's second powerplay goal of the game - but that would be their final marker as the Devils held on for a 5-2 win.

Gallery