Hull Stingrays v Cardiff Devils - 12/09

Cardiff continued their league campaign with their third successive away game, this time travelling to Hull. Jason Stone was once again missing, but Mark Richardson returned after an injury in Newcastle the previous Sunday.

In an end to end first period, it was the Devils who opened the scoring. Ben Davies passed the puck to Tyler Michel, and he fired it into the net on 15 minutes for his first ever Cardiff goal.

Less than two minutes later and it appeared the Devils had taken a firm grip on the game. Gerad Adams and Max Birbraer combined to setup Brad Voth, who beat Tommy Sandahl in the Hull net to make it 2-0 at 16:34.

If the first period belonged to Cardiff, then the second was all about the Hull Stingrays. From the first whistle they hit and skated hard, and got a goal back at 21:18 thanks to Konstantin Kalmikov. Four minutes later and the same player had made it 2-2, Thompson and Glowa with the assists again.

Hull continued to pile on the pressure, and when Phil Hill was sent to the bin midway through the game, the Stingrays powerplay unit clicked and Lee Esders scored to give the home side the lead at 33:15.

With several questionable Stingrays checks going unpunished, Cardiff were dealt a big blow when Mark Smith was hit hard into the boards. Skating off clutching his shoulder, Smith played no further part in the game and the Devils frustrations surfaced at the end of the period. Phil Hill and Brad Voth both received roughing penalties for the skirmish with Sylvain Cloutier.

Cardiff tried to fight back in the final period but couldn’t find anyway past Sandahl despite firing 15 shots at him. With 1 minute to go the Devils pulled Lyle for the extra skater, but it was the Stingrays who got the final goal, Kalmikov firing the puck the length of the ice to complete his hat-trick and seal a 4-2 victory.

Hull Stingrays: Kalmikov 3+0, Esders 1+0, Glowa 3+0, Thompson 0+2, Hutchinson 0+1,  Gomenyuk 0+1.

Cardiff Devils: Michel 1+0, Voth 1+0, Davies 1+0, Hill 1+0, Adams 1+0.

Shots on Goal: Sandahl 42, Lyle 18.