20 Jan 2019, 16:00 | Regular season | Cardiff Arena |
Cardiff Devils | 5-2 | Belfast Giants |
Periods: Shots: | 3-0 ( - ) | 0-2 ( - ) | 2-0 ( - ) |
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Referees: Tom Pering/Andrew Dalton  |  Spectators: 3100 |
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Goals and assists
Less than 24 hours after beating Belfast in Cardiff, the Devils produced an excellent display to take maximum points over their title rivals on Sunday afternoon.
The Giants started the better of the two sides, but after not scoring they were undone by three Devils goals in 71 seconds. Mike Hedden found Mark Richardson back post to open the scoring for the home side at 12:50, and off the resulting faceoff a defensive mix-up allowed Sean Bentivoglio to find Matt Pope free in the slot, who deked Beskorowany and slotted home just nine seconds later. When Bryce Reddick made it 3-0 with only 14:01 on the clock Giants’ coach Adam Keefe called his timeout.
When the Giants needed at the start of the middle session was to get on the board early – A crisp pass from Patrick Dwyer found Kyle Baun in front to deflect pass Bowns for 3-1 at 22:49 on the powerplay. What the Devils then didn’t need to do was take another penalty, this time with Bentivoglio in the box, Belfast got themselves well back in the game as Blair Riley’s pass in front deflected in off a stick to bring the score back to 3-2 with just 5:16 played in period two.
Evan Mosey beating Jim Vandereer in a footrace to cooly slot past Beskorowany put the Devils back two ahead just over two minutes into the final period. If that didn’t all-but end the game, then Drew Schiestel’s powerplay goal at 52:46 certainly did. The Devils took the 5-2 win and go nine points clear at the top of the EIHL table.
In numbers:
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Devils |
Giants |
Shot efficiency |
16.13% |
8.00% |
PP % |
1/3 |
2/5 |
PK % |
3/5 |
2/3
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