Devils with second straight important win

Photo: John Uwins

Cardiff Devils completed a vital four-point week with their second victory over a team in the top four in as many nights, beating Guildford Flames 4-2 on Saturday evening.

The Devils, who led 3-0 against Belfast after 20 minutes on Friday night, set about opening up a healthy lead at the Spectrum as well. After some decent early Flames pressure. Joey Martin spun and fired home a loose puck to pen the scoring at 7:43. Justin Crandall beat Taz Burman at the second attempt to make it 2-0 with 2:26 left in an opening period where the home side saw two poweprlay chances go begging.

51 seconds into the second, Cole Sanford's individual effort saw him finish beating Burman short side to put the Devils three ahead. Guildford, who were shut out on Wednesday by Belfast, were looking at five straight periods without a goal until Ben O'Connor beat Taran Kozun on a rebound with 31 seconds left in period two. 

The Flames needed an early goal in period three, and Peter Crinella obliged. He stole the puck off Josh Batch along the boards and then beat Kozun short side to make it a one-goal game with 18:11 to play. The underside of the crossbar prevented the Devils from going back tow ahead, but as the Flames tried to push for an equaliser and the game became very end to end it was the home side who started to run into penalty trouble. 

A late roughing minor on Turner Ripplinger with 2:48 to go allowed the Devils to set up on the powerplay, and Trevor Cox got the final touch on a scramble at the top fo the crease to make it 4-2 with 1:40 to play.