Devils hold on for win in Dundee
Photo: Derek Black
Cardiff Devils survived a Dundee Stars team that refused to go away, coming out with a 6-4 win at the Dundee Ice Arena on Wednesday night.
Zach O'Brien scored and picked up two assists, putting him on top of the league's points standings. "We had a good start but kind of fell apart and got away from our game in the second period." said the Devils forward. "Dundee took advantage of that and it went down to the wire. It was a good game, well take the two points but we can play better."
The Devils started strong in Dundee, maintaining consistent pressure in the Stars zone and keeping Stars’ netminder Richard Sabol sharp early. This paid off for the visitors as Reid Duke opened the scoring 05:20 into the game. A shot from the point by Gleason Fournier found its way through traffic, Sabol made an initial save, however Duke was left alone in front of the net, picking up the rebound and tucking the puck home for his third goal in two games.
It didn’t take long for the Stars’ to respond, evening the score just 16 seconds later at 05:36. Cole MacDonald kept the puck in the Devil’s zone, and found Jake Elmer along with left wing who sniped the puck past Ben Bowns’ glove-side to equalise.
A high-scoring second began with two video reviews in the opening two minutes of the period. The first review came after 52 seconds, however it was determined the Stars’ hadn’t managed to beat Bowns from close range, and the score remained one apiece.
A second review shortly followed at 21:10, after Cole Sanford managed to find the back of the net - an effort from Evan Mosey was initially saved by Sabol, however Sanford skated in had the puck bounce off his back skate to put the Devils into the lead again.
Jake Elmer responded quickly, scoring his second of the game at 22:58 with an unbelievable solo effort. After picking the puck up in the neutral zone, the Canadian skated the puck over the blue line, navigating his way through the Cardiff defence and beating Bowns five hole to even the score.
The visitors once again took the lead, with their third coming at 28:39 as Andrew MacWilliam took a shot from the right of Sabol, and after an initial save from the Stars’ netminder Zach O’Brien was first to the puck and sniped into the roof of Sabol's net.
"I thought our line was pretty good tonight. Sanny (Cole Sanford) and Oli (Kohen Olischefski) are two great players, very easy to play with. Sanny made a nice play on the entry for the goal, MacWilliam had a shot go off the pad and I saw the goalie slide over and tried to put it on the short side, and I was lucky enough that it went in" said O'Brien of his goal.
Elmer once again evened the score, completing his hat trick at 32:19. An innocent looking shot from the point managed to trickle past Bowns, as the netminder couldn’t get enough on it to keep it from rolling across the line.
The final goal of the period came at 38:21, as Joey Martin found the back of the net to send the visitors into the second intermission ahead, putting home a rebound from a Ryan Barrow shot. Dundee ended the period on the powerplay but were unable to draw level again.
Not taking advantage of that Riley Brandt slashing penalty that also ran into the start of period three came back to hurt the Stars. 1:52 into the third, Zach O'Brien's excellent pass found Kohen Olischefski to put the visitors 5-3 up.
A neat reverse pass from Alex Tonge fed Philippe Sanche got a well-taken goal with 1:50 left to play to get the Stars back to within one late. Sabol was pulled and a timeout taken for the Stars with 1:06 to go, but just 12 seconds later Joey Martin found the empty net to notch his 600th point in the Elite League.
"Everything's been great so far. I've had a lot of years in North America but I'm loving it so far here. It's a great group of guys, Cardiff is a great city so I'm really happy and looking forward to keeping going" added O'Brien on a successful night for him and his Devils team.
