Saturday saw the Solent Devils make the long road trip to the Ice Arena Wales, to face Cardiff Fire for the second time this season.
The huge rink at Cardiff is a stark difference to the small ice in Gosport, but the Devils seemed undaunted as play got underway, and just over three minutes in Drew Campbell opened the scoring for the Devils with an unassisted goal.
Seconds later, Fire gave the Devils an advantage when Iwan Davies sat two minutes for tripping. Cardiff held tight at the back though, and seconds before Davies was due to return to the ice, Mark Pitts got his stick caught up with Ross Wilkinson, pulling Wilkinson down and seeing Pitts head to the penalty box.
The first period was fast, tough hockey, with the puck going up and down the ice as both teams battled the other, testing both netminders. As the buzzer went to signal the end of the period, the score remained 1-0 to the visiting Devils.
The second period began, and the Devils came out hard. Mitch Murry getting things going just over two minutes in to the period, as he made the score 2-0. Assists coming from Pitts and Alex Trendall.
Two minutes later, Pitts picked up a goal of his own following assists from Murray and Devils captain, Alex Cole.
The Devils were now on the attack, and really pressuring the Fire goal. Daniel Self trying to defend sent the puck over the glass and earned himself a two minute delay of game penalty. This allowed the Devils to push once more, and Devils head coach, Alex Murray with defenceman Kieran Annis helped Campbell earn his second goal of the game.
As the period was heading in to the final few minutes, Will Crossley picked up a two minute penalty for roughing, and while he was in the box watched Philip Manny and Daniel Self help David Christian beat Christian Cole in the Devils goal.
The second period ended 4-1, the Devils still on top but Fire still not out of the game.
The third period bought more exciting hockey, both teams battling hard on the ice. Drew Campbell’s long pass to Devils top points man, Richard Facey, saw Facey go on to push the Devils lead even further.
Forty nine seconds later, Trendall and Pitts helped Mitch Murray once more, Murray making the score 6-1 with just over fifteen minutes left in the game.
Impressively, both teams still seemed to be full of energy, despite the amount skating all the players were doing up and down the ice, attacking and defending in equal measure.
On one occasion, as the Devils were attacking, Lewis Davies froze the puck and it was taken to the face off spot to get the game going again. Pitts won the face off, and knocked the puck back to Ben Lock on the blue line. As Lock looked up, he could see some net, and sent an oddly slow moving puck directly in to the gap between Davies head and the post, just under the crossbar.
Just over a minute later, Fire broke though for the second time of the game, Rhys Harding getting the final touch following help from Andre Norris and Philip Manny.
The Devils weren’t done though, and Pitts went on to score once more, following help from Alex Murray and Richard Facey.
As the final buzzer went, the Devils were celebrating their 8-2 victory, and the realisation this had nudged them to the top of the league.
Unfortunately for the Devils, Oxford City Stars played against Cardiff the following day, putting Stars back on top.
The Devils play again this Saturday, away to Haringey Huskies. As well as concentrating on their own game, the Devils will be monitoring what happens at Lee Valley where Oxford will be playing, as, with the season starting to run down, all eyes will be on the top of the league table, where the Devils and Starts will be battling it out until the very end.
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