Devils take part one of Belfast double-header

Photo: William Cherry

A crowd of 7,346 fans saw Cardiff Devils race into a four-goal lead before beating Belfast Giants by three at the SSE Arena.

With the two previous meetings this season having been both won by the road team, it didn't come as much surprise when the Devils went ahead. 3:26 had been played when Cole Sanford's writ shot beat Tyler Beskorowany over the shoulder for a powerplay goal at 3:25. A little over seven minutes later, namesake Ully deflected a perfect Evan Mosey pass behind Beskorowany to give the Devils a two-goal advantage.

Mosey then deflected Sanford's feed past Beskorowany 72 seconds into period two, before Tyler Busch made it 4-0 when he was left all alone in front. That prompted Adam Keefe to call his timeout, visibly angry with his team, and opt for Jackson Whistle to take over netminding duties. 

Whatever Keefe said appeared to work as Oliver Cooper scored just 2:54 later to make it 1-4, but Trevor Cox and Ben Lake traded goals before the period was put to put the Devils 5-2 ahead after 40 minutes.

Josh Roach pulled the game back to 3-5 with just under 13 minutes to go, but Ully's second of the game with 1:49 left gave the Devils a 6-3 win.