Sanford hat trick helps Devils to road win

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Cole Sanford hit a hat trick as Cardiff Devils scored three goals in the middle period to beat Coventry Blaze 7-3 on Wednesday night.

The scoring was opened with Chad Pietroniero in the penalty box, but not the way the Blaze would have hoped - a bad turnover in the Blaze's breakout from Brady Norrish saw Cole Sanford skate through to beat Taran Kozun 1-on-0 at 11:06 shorthanded. Just under four minutes later, Ryan Barrow fired home to double the visitors' lead as they looked in control. However, 11 seconds later Kobe Roth threw a backhand at Ben Bowns which snuck over the line to bring the Blaze back to within one, and 86 seconds before the end of the period Kim Tallberg levelled after excellent work to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

122 seconds into period two, the Blaze broke 2-on-1 where Jack Hopkins fed David Clements for the far-post tap-in to put the Blaze into their first lead of the night. A 5-on-3 advantage led to the Devils tying the game at 29:47 off a Cole Sanford slapshot, while Cole Ully made it 4-3 on another powerplay at 36:57. The killer goal came 35 seconds later - Marcus Crawford's stretch pass found Josh Waller 1-on-0 with Kozun and he took one touch to control the puck before firing it into his former team-mate's net. Nolan Kent took over goaltending for the Blaze after that goal, with Ian McNulty and Tyler Busch dropping the gloves before the period was out.

Sanford made it a hat trick with a goal at 47:21 to put the Devils 6-3 ahead, before Jamie Arniel finished nicely in front with 7:34 to play for the visitors' seventh of the night.