The Devils shocked the Elite League Champions on Saturday, pulling off a 5-0 shutout win over the Belfast Giants to advance to the Playoff Final. 
Ben Bowns was spectacular in net, making 34 saves for the win, and Cole Sanford scored twice and set up two other goals for a 4 point night.
The Devils scored on their first shot of the game when Sanford sprung Joey Martin in on Jackson Whistle to beat him with a low shot just 1:08 into the game. The Giants settled down after that and outshot the Devils the rest of the period finishing with 12 shots on Bowns compared to 8 on Whistle.
The second period started with a powerplay for the Giants that carried over from the end of the first period, but the Devils managed to kill it off and then went to work. At 24:33, Josh MacDonald batted in the puck off a pass from Sanford to make it 2-0. The Devils were back on the penalty kill at 28:16 when Riley Brandt was called for high-sticking, but again the Devils killed off the Belfast powerplay.
At 32:02 the Devils got their first powerplay of the night when JJ Piccinich was called for tripping. Less than 30 seconds later, Sanford took a pass from Tyler Busch and fired the puck at the net, which was deflected off of a Belfast defender’s stick past Whistle to put the Devils up 3-0 at 32:28. 
Just 19 seconds later, Sanford threw another shot at the net and this time it deflected off both Belfast defencemen past Whistle to put the Devils up 4-0. With the clock running down in the final minute of the period, Zach O’Brien showed great patience to walk around a defender and across in front of Whistle to tuck the puck past the sprawling netminder to give the Devils a 5-0 with 33 seconds left on the clock.
The final period saw the Giants get another three powerplays, but the Devils’ penalty killers killed them all off. Bowns made another 12 saves in the third period to keep a clean sheet through 60 minutes, leading the Devils to a 5-0 win.
The Devils move onto the Playoff final on Sunday and will face the winner of the second semi-final between the Nottingham Panthers and the Sheffield Steelers.
Photos courtesy of Dean Woolley and James Assinder
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