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Cardiff ENL Devils 13 – 1 MK Thunder
Period scores: 4-0, 5-1, 4-0
Penalty mins: Cardiff
24
MK Thunder
14
Shots on Goal: On Cardiff’s Michael Brabon 10
Ross Piggott 9
On MK
Thunder’s Mark Woolf 43
Kevin McGurk 18
Man of the match: MK Thunder: Mark
Woolf
Thunder made the long trip down to
Cardiff with a very short bench of just 9 skaters and 2 netminders. Of the 9
skaters, only two were defencemen resulting in both Lewis Clifford and Sam
Fairhurst having to play back in D instead of their usual forward positions. The
lads knew what a tough game they were for, Cardiff are a very strong team on
their own ice both physically and ability, but they were determined to have a
go, put the effort in, and see what happened.
After a very strange introduction onto
the ice with Devils using the Elite league ‘build up’ which seemed to go on
forever (maybe it was a ploy to get the Thunder lads tired before face off with
all the waiting!), the game eventually got underway and Thunder got caught
almost immediately when Fisher scored Devils opener with only 24 seconds on the
clock. Cardiff were using their power and size to full advantage with a number
of big hits going in when Thunder had possession. Despite this Thunder kept
trying to play an attacking game whenever possible, using the stretch pass out
of defence in an attempt to catch out the Cardiff defence. Devils though had
control of the game and made their numerical advantage work for them. Luke
Piggott increased their lead at 6:44 before Stephen Deacon made it 3-0 with a
short handed goal mid period. Piggott added a fourth at 11:51 but after that
Thunder managed to hold the home team for the rest of the period.
The second period followed a similar
pattern with Cardiff applying all the pressure and Thunder trying to hit them on
the break when they got the opportunity. Devils added two more goals through
James and Armour, before Harrison Goode got Thunder on the score sheet at 30:35,
assisted by Martyn Snape and Jay McFadyen, to make it 6-1. Three further Devils
goals (Shurmer, Bowers, and Deacon) meant Thunder went into the final break 9-1
down.
Both teams changed netminders for the
last 20 minutes, with Kevin McGurk replacing an exhausted man of the match, Mark
Woolf, in Thunder’s goal.
Thunder’s nine skaters never gave up the
cause and despite conceding a further 4 goals in the period, they always kept
looking to attack and in giving 100% effort right to the final whistle they did
themselves and the club proud. Hopefully next time Thunder make the long trip,
it will be with a full team! |
