Bowns stars as Devils beat Clan in Glasgow

Photo: Glasgow Clan

Cardiff Devils responded to an overtime defeat to Manchester Storm with an excellent road win in Glasgow, beating Clan 3-1 at Braehead Arena.

In a fast start, both Ben Bowns and Landon Bow were called into early action, making good pad and gloves saves respectively to keep things scoreless in the opening 90 seconds. Neither side managed to find the net in the first, but Clan could count themselves unlucky not having done so with long spells spent in the Devils zone and some good chances created. At the other end, Cole Sanford almost capitalized on a giveaway but Bow ensured he didn’t.

The Devils started period two the stronger, and repaid Ben Bowns’ excellent form at the other end with two goals on the rush. Reid Duke set up Sanford for a far-post shot that beat Bow 3:19 into the period, followed just over ten minutes later by a wonderful backhand effort from Josh MacDonald that put the Devils two ahead at 34:11, and had them up by a pair through 40 minutes.

The small margins in the game of hockey were evident in period three. While the Devils were on a powerplay, Alex Forbes broke away on Bowns but was slashed while preparing to shoot, leading to a penalty shot. Forbes took it and almost beat Bowns, only for the GB netminder to make an excellent last-ditch save to keep his side 2-0 ahead. 75 seconds later, Sanford finished off a Devils' passing play on the powerplay to make it 3-0 and give the visitors some breathing space.

Still Clan refused to go away, but were foiled by Bowns time and time again – Cole Ully coming close to scoring against his former team only for Bowns to shut the door on him. The hosts were handed a late chance when Josh Batch took a high-sticking minor, and Bowns’ shutout was ruined with 23 seconds to go through – no more than Clan had deserved.