Devils get much-needed Cup win

Photo: James Assinder

Cardiff Devils secured the two points they needed to stay alive in the Challenge Cup, beating defending Champions Sheffield Steelers 5-3 at the Vindico Arena.

A back-and-forth first period saw Reid Duke take an early high-sticking call, allowing Steeler’s Vallerand to score an impressive goal during the powerplay. Not long after, the Devils received a powerplay of their own but were unable to convert - something that would become a theme over the evening.

The home side did level before the end of the period, however. A 2-on-1 involving Reid Duke and Tyler Busch was converted by the former at 13:34 to keep things level through 20 minutes.

An eventful start to the second period saw Cole Shudra ejected for Cross-Checking, but again the home side's powerplay came up short, the Steelers successfully killing off the entire five minutes. And the visitors went on to punish the Devils when Vallerand netted his second  of the night while Josh MacDonald sat a Slashing minor.

The period would end level, though. Reid Duke stole the puck on his own blue line, got past Mark Simpson, and beat Greenfield as he was being tripped to level the scores at 35:14.

Cardiff ended the second period strong an carried that momentum over into the third. They took the lead through Cole Sanford  period, finding themselves a goal through the forward of Cole Sanford, beating Greenfield five-hole from a bad angle at 49:46, before Riley Brant made it 4-2 off a pass from Ben Davies a little under three minutes later. Duke's badly-timed Interference minor allowed the Steelers to score their third powerplay goal of the night when a wonderful Mitchell Balmas pass found Mukko Juusola for the back-post tap-in at 54:05. 46 seconds later, however, MacDonald fed Joey Martin to beat Greenfield and put the Devils back two ahead.

That was where the scoring ended and kept the Devils alive in the Cup, while the Steelers went down to their first defeat in the Challenge Cup this season.