Cardiff Devils scored 3 unanswered in the middle frame to erase a Flames lead they would never retrieve during an eventual 6-3 defeat on Spectrum ice.
Former Flame Joshua Waller nudged Devils in front just a little over 2 minutes into the evening, but Kyle Locke squared it at 10:58. Spectrum’s men took a lead through Matt Alvaro just outside 5 minutes with a strike that required video review, but not before about 4 minutes had burned from the extended run of play that followed and the expired time had to be re-stored before they could see the period out on the 2-1 Flames lead.
At 23:28 Sam Duggan levelled for the visitors and Waller’s 2nd of the contest around the midway mark once again had them holding the edge, this time at 3-2. Rather than sit on the lead, they added a late frame marker through Riley Brandt to be up a pair ahead of the 3rd.
Trevor Cox extended Devils margin at 43:16 and Jamie Arniel, shorthanded, in the 51st minute made it 6-2. Lewis Hook answered shortly after that to make a cosmetic change to the scoreline without adjusting the overall result.
Taz Burman turned away 24 of 30 shots while Ben Bowns was good on 35 of 38 that went his way.
“Things were looking better there at the end of the first period where we had a great deal of the play, and came out of that with a lead,” said Paul Dixon.
“A bit of sloppiness in the 2nd gave them some good opportunities that they buried and we never recovered from that,”
“There is not all that much we can say other than we have to keep trying to find different ways of breaking through. The most difficult part is mental. It’s tough in our dressing room right now, and guys are going to have to push through it and find a way to make something happen that they can put a foot on to try and pull themselves up.”
“We go on the road tomorrow, and maybe that can help us relax a bit more and just play the game and try to assert ourselves in a way that can lead to a win.”
