Devils score four answered to win in Fife

Photo: Flyers Images

Four unanswered Cardiff Devils goals saw them come back from three down to beat Fife Flyers on Sunday night in Kirkcaldy.

Cardiff outshot the Flyers 16-6 in the opening period, but found themselves 3-1 down after the opening 20 minutes at Fife Ice Arena. An excellent Kevin Wehrs pass across the slot set up Colin Shirley for the one-time finish to put Fife ahead with 5:42 played, and exactly four minutes later Bode Wild taking a puck to the face left the DEvils caught on a line change and allowed Troy Lajeunesse to skate 1-on-0 and beat Ben Bowns to make it 2-0. Pete Russell called his timeout after the goal but saw his team slip further behind when let a wrist shot fly at 17:01 to give Fife a three-goal lead. Ryan Barrow got on a rebound from a Tyler Busch shot to pull one back for the Devils with 2:05 left in period one.

Early in period two, Justin Crandall was given too much time in the offensive zone and picked his stop past Lindskoug through a screen to bring the visitors back to within one with 22:36 played. For most of the remainder of the period, the Devils had Lindskoug's net under siege save for some odd-man rushes the other way - notably through Johan Eriksson who opted to shoot but couldn't beat Bowns. Lindskoug ended the period having stopped 15 of the 16 shots he faced.

Josh Waller levelled the game 2:27 into period three, and under three minutes later the turnaround was completed with a Cransall shot from a tight angle that beat Lindskoug at his near post. 

The Flyers were handed a late powerplay when Joey Martin tripped a Flyers forward but the hosts struggled to get much going - their best chance for a one-timer from the point was excellently blocked by Mark Richardson to stop it getting through to Bowns. Cardiff had a late empty-netter washed out for the puck having entered the net off a hand, but they survived the remaining 15 seconds to secure a comeback win.