Devils forward Cole Sanford scored 4 times to lead their offence as the visiting side from Cardiff handed Flames a 7-4 home ice defeat in Cup group play.
Sanford set Devils to a lead only 79 seconds into the contest. Sam Marklund levelled at 7:33, but a Ryan Penny answer during a 12th minute powerplay had the road team in a 2-1 lead at the break.
Near the end of the opening 5 minutes of the 2nd set, Turner Ripplinger squared it for Flames and seconds beyond the back 5 minutes, Jordan Klimek kicked off an active run when he put Flames in front. Unfortunately, Sanford replied 15 seconds later with his 2nd before Penny’s brace had Cardiff back in a lead at through 40 minutes thanks to his goal at 38:02.
A minute, 45 into the 3rd, Sanford buried his hat trick goal to extend the margin to a 5-3 count and he added his 4th just a few minutes later to put Cardiff in full command up by 3. Peter Crinella would pull the final tally a little closer with a goal just over 3 minutes from time, but a late Devils empty netter by Mark Louis iced the final result and the distribution of the cup table points.
Devils outshot the hosts by a 38-24 count with Eamon McAdam making 31 saves while Taran Kozun had 20.
“Where last week, we definitely dominated Cardiff and came out on the short end of the score, they had more of the play tonight and the score was much more reflective of how the game went,” conceded Head Coach Paul Dixon.
“They scored right out of the gate, and even though we tied it a couple of times and even had a very short lived lead, it just felt like a game where we were always chasing.”
“We have to look back at a very busy schedule we have had and generally be pretty happy with how we handled that, and now we get a full week of training in for the first time in a couple of weeks and hopefully we can iron out a few problems and be ready to try and make the most of a 2 home game weekend Saturday and Sunday.”
