A perfect weekend for the Cardiff Devils saw them follow up Friday’s home victory over the Belfast Giants with a dominant shutout win against the Sheffield Steelers at the Utilita Arena.
Ben Bowns stopped all 17 shots he faced to backstop the Devils to an impressive road performance. The hosts were without Logan Neilson, Reece Kelly, and Cole Shudra, who were listed on the gamesheet but had not arrived by the time the game began at 16:14 and were therefore unable to ice.
Cardiff took advantage of an early Steelers turnover at the blue line to open the scoring. Evan Mosey sent Josh MacDonald through on a breakaway, and he calmly finished five-hole on Matt Greenfield to give the visitors the lead.
Just over three minutes later, Brandon Estes found Ryan Barrow in front, and his deft redirection doubled Cardiff’s advantage. The tempo ramped up following a heavy hit on Sheffield’s Evan Jasper, but the Devils took their two-goal cushion into the first intermission.
Midway through the second period, a point shot deflected off Kristoff Kontos’ skate and spun past Greenfield at 33:04 to make it 3-0. Less than 90 seconds later, Steven MacLean netted his first goal as a Devil, firing high from the hashmarks after a giveaway to make it 4-0. “Not a spot I’d find myself in very often,” said MacLean. “But it was good to get that goal to put us up a bit more. It’s always nice to get that personal success.”
The Devils’ structure and discipline were key to their success throughout the night. “We feel really good as a team,” added MacLean. “We stuck to our structure, we did what we wanted to do all night. It was a really good game and topped off a good weekend for us.”
In the final period, Sheffield had a couple of chances to break the shutout but either missed the target or found Bowns in the way. Cardiff almost added a late powerplay goal, but four proved more than enough as they capped off an excellent weekend with another statement win.
“We’re a confident group,” said MacLean. “We feel like we can compete with any team in this league. It’s been a good test for us here, but there’s a lot of season left so we’re not getting complacent. We’ve had a good weekend but we have to turn the page and get ready for the next one.”
For the Steelers, it was a night to forget. “We just didn’t have it tonight,” admitted Kevin Tansey. “Sometimes it happens, but it can’t happen against a good team like Cardiff. With two teams at the top of the table, we have to show more than that.”
He added: “We just came off winning six in a row. We got punched in the mouth a bit tonight but have to have a short memory. You play 60 or 70 games in this league – you’re not going to win them all, so you just have to learn from the ones you don’t.”
With EIHL match report
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