EIHL Play off weekend

15 Apr 2018Robert Newbolt»

Cardiff Devils secured the play off championship at the hands of the Sheffield Steelers. Cardiff won through to the final at the expense of a gritty Fife Flyers side, indeed they held out until the final period when the Devils' strength in depth told and they ran out 4-0 winners. The other finalists, Sheffield Steelers, were however locked in an epic battle with arch rivals Nottingham Panthers; and although Steelers were twice two goals behind they battled back to secure an overtime goal and win 5-4.

Cardiff Devils made history as they won their first ever play-off title in Elite League history and first since the old Super League era in 1999.

Astonishingly they have made the final two five times before and the final four a previous thirteen times but this time they got the main prize.

Cardiff won through to the final at the expense of a gritty Fife Flyers side, indeed they held out until the final period when the Devils' strength in depth told and they ran out 4-0 winners.

The other finalists, Sheffield Steelers, were however locked in an epic battle with arch rivals Nottingham Panthers; and although Steelers were twice two goals behind they battled back to secure an overtime goal and win 5-4.

Anyway onto the final.

CARDIFF DEVILS 3 SHEFFIELD STEELERS 1

Matt Pope, Andrew Hotham and Jake Morissette were the history makers as Andrew Lord’s men got their revenge after missing out in a dramatic 6-5 double overtime loss last year.

While this final perhaps wasn’t as high tempo and manic as the meeting 12 months ago, it was every bit as tense as Devils needed an empty net to be sure of silverware.

The first period remained goalless even though a fast paced game was dominated by a strong Cardiff team.

Steelers had arguably their best chance of the game when the puck bounced in the direction of Robert Dowd, free in the centre, but his effort was stopped by Cardiff’s Ben Bowns.

Devils opened the scoring through Matt Pope when he collected a pass from Joey Martin to rifle the puck home.

Devils increased their lead after Andrew Hotham cut in from the right and delivered a fabulous shot that flew over Mustukovs’ blocker and into the net.

Layne Ulmer almost added a third when his shot from outside the crease, from Faryna’s pass saw Sheffield’s netminder equal to it.

But soon, the Steelers had a lifeline with 13 minutes to go when Eric Neiley punced on a turnover and fired his shot over Bowns’ glove and into the net, halving the deficit to one.

Cardiff held their nerve in the final stages and the fans were only able to breathe when Jake Morissette finished the empty netter with 17 seconds to go and the celebrations began.

All in all the better side were victorious on the day as Cardiff were able to add this trophy to the one they had already secured with the league title win.