Harewood stars as Devils beat Storm

Photo: Aled Hopkins

Cardiff Devils won their first Motorpoint Elite League fixture with a shutout home victory over Manchester Storm at the Vindico Arena.

The biggest of the early chances saw Jake Sacratini in prime position for the shot, but Drew DeRidder made a good save. Josh MacDonald was through on goal but also found DeRidder in the way to stop him opening the scoring. Those saves helped the opening period end goalless, with both teams having nine shots on target.

Bayley Harewood got the only goal of the second period to put the Devils ahead. With a toe-drag, he beat a partially unsighted DeRidder 21 seconds into the period.

Drydn Dow had a chance to tie the game during the period, but Christian Stoever was able to save his shot from close range.

Kyle Maksimovich had a breakaway saved by Stoever at the start of the third, while DeRidder stopped a Harewood chance on the line as the Devils tried to double their advantage. Storm saw a shot come back off the crossbar as they tried to tie it and pulled DeRidder late. MacDonald missed the empty net, but captain Joey Martin followed up to put the game to bed with 18.5 seconds left.