Saturday saw the Solent Devils make the long road trip west, to face the Devils of Cardiff in what could be their last visit to the “big blue tent.”
The temporary rink has been the home of ice hockey in Cardiff since 2006, and as the late summer sun slowly set across Cardiff Bay, the temporary structure cast its long shadow over the neighbouring building which will be Cardiff’s new permanent home when construction is finished. The ÂŁ16m twin ice pad facility, is due to open its doors in mid-January 2016, just a week or so before the Devils are due to make their second visit to the Welsh capital in this 2015/16 campaign.
Saturday night’s game saw head coach Alex Murray’s men come away with a vital 3-2 victory, in the English national league div1.  The score line certainly wasn’t a true reflection of the game itself, with Cardiff scoring their first goal of the game with only 0:36 seconds left on the clock.
Solent got the perfect start they wanted, going 1-0 up after only 5 minutes. Face off specialist Steve Gosset won the draw, passing the puck back to his point man who passed the puck to utility man Mason Wild on the edge of the face-off circle, who scored his second goal of the year with a backhanded effort beating Ross Miller in the Cardiff net.
Six minutes later Richard Facey scored his fourth goal of the campaign, creating himself some space in the Cardiff slot, to fire the Devils into a comfortable 2-0 lead.
Cardiff’s response was typical of their bump and hustle style of hockey, actually out shooting the Devils in the 1st period.
However, their lack of creativity and quality in front on net showed when the Devils ran into penalty trouble, handing Cardiff three first period power plays, none of which Cardiff managed to capitalise on the man advantage and the Devils went in at the end of the first period 2-0 up.
The second period saw the Devils continue to control the game, with some good performances from some of the ever improving younger members of the Devils squad, Alex Trendall showing what a talent he can be. Returning from injury, Ralfs Circenis unlucky not to add a third goal after linking up witg George Norcliffe. Returning Hungarian import Dominic Heygi, skated well after being out of action for the past few weeks with an injury, making some good transitional plays and enjoying the freedom of time and space on the large ice surface.
The ever consistent “Chico” Cole in the Devils net dealt with  every one of the 18 shots he faced, as Cardiff refused to go down without putting up a half decent fight.
Third period, and Cardiff thought they had finally undone the Devils defence on 43 minutes
After Cardiff winger Jonathan Nash received a pass in space, only for Devils defence man Ben “The Block” Lock to do everything he could to get his 6 foot frame back across the blue line and halt the Cardiff winger from getting a clear shot away. Although Lock was judged by ref Ormond to have impeded Nash in the process, thus earning himself a two minute minor tripping penalty.
The Devils killed of the two minute penalty perfectly, and contained Cardiff’s attempts to build any real momentum.
George Norcliffe went close to a adding to his tally, with a clear breakaway, only to see his backhand effort saved by the outstretched right leg pad of Miller.
The Devils third goal came on 48 minutes, after a perfectly weighted pin point pass from captain Alex Cole released Richard Facey at centre ice, allowing him to skate through the middle of the rink and go in, one on one beating the Cardiff keeper low to his left, scoring his second of the night and effectively killing off the game at 3-0.
However, it has to be said, credit to the Cardiff team. Â The prospect of defeat in front of their own fans for the second week in a row didn’t sit well with them, as they refused to shut up shop. They kept their feet moving and kept grinding away. What Cardiff lack in quality, they make up for in spirt and work rate, they were gifted a lifeline in the form of a late power play which they used to their full advantage, with Giacomo Raffielli capitalising after the Devils failed to clear the puck, putting Cardiff on the score board with only 0:36 left in the game.
Back to 5 on 5 and Cardiff then won the resulting face off and forced another defensive error, allowing Zak Shanahan time and space to punish the seemingly shell shocked Devils and adding a second with only 0:05 left on the clock!
This is the second time these two teams have met this season, with Cardiff grabbing a dramatic last minute equaliser at the Gosport rink just over a month ago. Surely history wouldn’t be cruel enough to repeat itself again in just a matter of a few weeks?
With this in mind, the experienced coach Murray collected the won face off pass and steered the puck to the safest place possible on the rink to run the clock down and secure the Devils first away win of the season, much to the relief of the players and to the delight of the traveling fans. Ice hockey is a game played over 60 minutes. You switch off for a moment at this level and you will be punished. The Devils found this out the hard way, after what was a convincing away performance, dispite what the scoreline suggests. Man of the match Christian Cole put in a trademark heroic performance, stopping 42 shots and can count himself extremely unlucky not to have earned himself his first shutout of the season.  So with the team, the kit, and the 2 points safely packed onto the bus for the journey home back along the M4, the team enjoyed the win for a few hours before turning their attention to Sunday evening’s game. Their toughest test of the season so far, a home game against the unbeaten league leaders, the Chelmsford Chieftains!
Written by Martin Clayton
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