The Devils were on the road in Scotland on Sunday to face the Dundee Stars. They travelled without leading scorer Josh MacDonald who was rested and defenceman Gleason Fournier who is still injured. That meant Ben Almquist was back in the lineup and Riley Brandt moved onto a line with Joey Martin and Cole Sanford. Ben Bowns got the start in net for the Devils and Jarrett Fiske was in net for the Stars.
The Devils came out flying from the drop of the puck with two good scoring chances in the first two minutes. Fiske had to be on top form to keep the Devils from taking an early lead with both Cole Sanford and Zach O’Brien going close.
The Devils finally opened the scoring at the 9 minute mark when Ryan Barrow dropped the puck to Jarrod Gourley who was sweeping down from the blueline. Gourley fed a perfect pass to Cody Donaghey on the back door for a tap in past Fiske to make it 1-0 at 8:57. Just over two minutes later, O’Brien picked off a misplayed puck by a Dundee defender and went in on a breakaway, slipping the puck between the legs of Fiske to give the Devils a 2-0 lead at 11:01.
The Stars got a goal back when Zachary Tsekos was left alone in front of Bowns for Spencer Naas to find him with enough time to squeeze his shot through Bowns to pull the score back to 2-1. A late cross-checking penalty against Donaghey set up a Stars powerplay with 1:45 remaining in the first but the Devils killed it off and finished the period leading by a goal.
Things started to heat up in the second period with both teams throwing their bodies around much more than in the opening 20 minutes. Midway through the period, things boiled over after a series of cross-checks by Xavier Pouliot in a scrum along the side boards that Andrew MacWilliam was not happy with. They dropped the gloves with Pouliot picking up an extra penalty for being the instigator in the fight.
With 6 minutes left in the period, Kohen Olischefski got tied up with Ben O’Connor in the corner beside the Dundee net and ended up getting called for holding the stick to put the Stars back on the powerplay with a chance to tie the game. The Devils showed why they are the top penalty killers in the league with another big kill.
Late in the period, Olishefski broke the puck out to O’Brien then got the return pass as he they entered the Star zone. Olischefski then dropped the puck to O’Brien right in front of the net and he chipped the puck over Fiske for his second goal of the game to put the Devils up 3-1 with 3:14 left in the period. As the buzzer sounded for the end of the period, a Dundee forward threw a late hit on Brandt and Brandt took exception. The result was a fight between Brandt and Kris Inglis with both players getting thrown out for the rest of the game.
The Devils opened the period on another penalty kill, this time a 4 minute advantage for the Stars. 1:46 into the period, MacWilliam was called for tripping, which meant a 5 on 3 powerplay for the Stars for a full 2 minutes. The Devils penalty kill came up huge , as did Bowns who made a number of key saves to kill off the penalties and get the Devils back to full strength.
The Stars had all the momentum in the final period, outshooting the Devils 17-4 but Bowns was there to stop every shot. The Stars pulled their netminder with nearly two minutes on the clock and continued to pile on the pressure, but to no avail. The Devils held on for the 3-1 win on the back of an outstanding performance by Bowns and a two goal game by Zach O’Brien.
Photos courtesy of Derek Black
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