Flames let lead slip but come back to win in OT

Photo: John Uwins

Guildford Flames let a 4-1 lead slip away before tying late and scoring in overtime to beat Cardiff Devils in an entertaining Saturday night game at the spectrum.

A crazy opening period saw five goals scored inside eight minutes, which left the Flames with a commanding 4-1 lead. 

Guildford took the lead with only 42 seconds played thanks to Alex Yuill's shot from the boards which seemed to beat Taran Kozun five-hole. The Devils were level 40 seconds later off a nice deke by Jake Coughler but at 3:09 Turner Ripplinger put the Flames back ahead with another shot from distance that evaded Kozun.

Levi Cable banked the puck in off the back of Kozun from behind the goal-line to make it 3-1 with 6:35 played after which the Devils' goalie's night ended early. 50 seconds later Jordan Cownie found Jake Bolton in space for a bottle-popper past Mac Carruth to make it 4-1.

Cole Sanford finished a nice tic-tac-toe play off with passes from Trevor Cox and Matt Register to bring the visitors back to within two at 18:26.

While the Flames had some solid pressure in the second period, they were indebted to Kevin Lindskoug for an excellent, diving save at the back post to keep them two ahead. However, not a minute later Brandon McNally netted to pull the Devils back to within one with 16 seconds left in the second.

Coughler's shot through traffic levelled the game on the powerplay at 45:19, and under two minutes later Stephen Dixon then put the Devils into their first lead of the night.

Guildford pulled Lindskoug for the extra attacker and called a timeout with 76 seconds left. After a miss-hit on a chance to tie the game at the back post, Ian McNulty then buried his one-timer from the same spot to level things up with 18 seconds left.

The hosts rode that momentum into overtime where they had the better of the half-chances before Jamal Watson beat Carruth high glove side in the slot to win it for the Flames 2:55 into overtime.