A Cardiff Devils powerplay goal from Joey Martin just 36 seconds from time was the difference as the Flames came back from a pair of goals down but couldn’t get fully over the hill to generate points during a 3-2 home defeat.
Before the evening was 4 minutes old Devils had themselves a lead thanks to Zach O’Brien, and Brett Perlini doubled the difference they would hold at the break thanks to his strike ahead of the period’s halfway mark.
Early in the 2nd, penalty killing had to bail Spectrum’s men out to keep the game within reach when they disposed of a roughly 90 second 5 on 3 situation then immediately had to kill another couple of minutes down a man. Special teams also finally got them on the scoreboard late in the frame thanks to Josh Waller’s first since returning to the club; this one a powerplay conversion just 8 seconds from period time make it a single goal affair.
Flames pulled the game back to even terms just over 5 minutes into the 3rd with a Lewis Hook leveller. A Flames powerplay inside the last 4 minutes looked a good chance to steal a win, but it was nullified late with their own too many men penalty. Cardiff’s eventual powerplay then did the job to secure the points with Martin’s decider seconds from the end.
“You look at the gamesheet and you think the late goal cost us the night, but you have to go back to the first period and see what we did, or more aptly, didn’t do as the night started and that had more impact on the outcome,” explained Paul Dixon.
“We were much better later in the game, but we can’t play 32 minutes, 36 minutes, 38 minutes. It is a 60 minute game and we have to be dialled on from the start, and we were not tonight.”
“There were a lot of positives including the fight to get the game back level, but moral victories don’t earn points so every guy has to look to himself to see how he can be prepared each night to be in it from the start so we can generate more consistent results. That’s the theme this week as we come back and see if we can improve for the upcoming games.”
