Flyers beat Devils for third straight home win
Photo: Flyers Images
Action from Fife Ice Arena got underway between the Fife Flyers and the Cardiff Devils with both sides hoping to bounce back after each suffered a loss in their previous contest.
With 7:53 to go in the first, Fife would appear to go up by one as hands reached for the rafters in celebration, but the referees were quick to wave it off and play continued. The home crowd wouldn’t have to wait much longer, however, as the Flyers would, indeed, strike first courtesy of a Michael McNicholas quick shot that found its way past Cardiff’s Mac Carruth at 16:06.
Cardiff went on the man-advantage at the tail-end of the first, but Fife’s Shane Owen was equal to the task and maintained the hosts’ 1-0 lead heading into the second.
The middle frame began with the Devils creating havoc in the offensive zone. Fife managed to fight off the visitors’ chances for most of the period, but Cardiff’s efforts were eventually rewarded when Justin Crandall wired the equaliser past Owen on the powerplay in the dying minutes of the stanza.
1:10 later, however, the Flyers found their answer off a beauty from Carson Stadnyk in the slot to regain their lead. The home side nearly extended their advantage when a 2-on-1 developed with less than 3 minutes to go, but a sprawling Carruth denied the opportunity to keep the score 2-1 with one period left to play.
Third-period action saw both sides trading dangerous chances, but neither was able to finish. For their part, Fife enjoyed a late powerplay opportunity but failed to capitalise leaving Cardiff with their own chance to tie when a penalty shot was awarded to Trevor Cox after Owen was called for hooking. Cox did his best to make Owen bite with a forehand deke, but the Canadian netminder’s patience paid off as he turned aside the chance.
With less than a minute to go, the Devils were still searching for a goal that would never come. Instead, Matthew Carter capped off a hard-fought win for Fife with an empty-netter from the center dot as the Flyers would go on to defeat the Devils by a final of 3-1.
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