Cardiff Devils made it a weekend to forget for Manchester with a 4-1 victory at the Vindico Arena on Saturday night.
The result meant the Storm lost both of their fixtures this weekend and slipped to sixth in the table, though the scoreline flattered the hosts and had much more of a one-goal game feel about it than it ended.
JD Dudek opened the scoring after a mistake by Devils goalie Christian Stoever while playing the puck behind the net. However, the home side needed just 13 seconds to respond when Brett Perlini got to a defensive pass first to slot past Drew DeRidder and tie the game.
Cardiff went ahead 5:02 into the second period. A Gleason Fournier shot from the point on the powerplay was tipped in front by Joey Martin to give DeRidder no chance. Storm felt they should have had a penalty shot called on a Joe Nardi breakaway chance in the final stages of the second, and video replays suggested they may have had a case.
Brett Ferguson put the Devils 3-1 up against the run of play at 51:43, before a penalty on Fournier led to a timeout for Storm and saw DeRidder head to the bench with 3:03 to go. Sam Duggan found the empty net at 57:39 to wrap it up for the home side.
Photo: James Assinder
