Peterborough 7 - 4 Cardiff Junior Devils

The under 12s took the long trip to Peterborough on Saturday 22nd November, and came away with a loss, but with their heads held high. After a series of tough matches, this was a really good fighting performance from a comparatively inexperienced side. The match started with an early score for Peterborough Phantoms at 1.29.

Although there were not too many shots on the Cardiff goal (13 on Cardiff’s principal netminder Ciaran Matthews), they were searching shots from well-worked moves, and Ciaran made some great saves. Cardiff’s defenders also worked hard, with nice work from Bryony Roberts and Connor Harris, and good clearances from Nat Schmidtke.

Scott Bird, in his first match back with Cardiff Devils, shone both offensively and defensively to take the Man of the Match award, taking several shots on the Peterborough netminder as well as forcing the Peterborough forwards out wide.

Peterborough proved to be feisty opposition, with several tripping penalties called, as well as calls for cross-checking, and even a misconduct penalty. A controversial goal at 13.15 was allowed to stand, and the first period closed with the score at 6-0.

The second period began again with another quick score for Peterborough. Cardiff’s second netminder, Caleb Davies, took to the ice and played his best game of the season, making some fantastic saves, and this seemed to be the turning point for the Devils.

Caleb’s fine performance helped keep the young Devils heads held high, and some fine passing resulted in two excellent goals from Scott Bird, with one assisted by Owen Bradshaw, early in the second period.

Neat passing from Eliot Randall, Nat Schmidtke and Matty Palmer, and from Jake Roberts, Iwan Davies and Ellis Murphy took the puck deep into the Peterborough zone, and great defence from Sam Edwards and Sam Roberts kept Peterborough from the Cardiff net, but somehow the bounces did not go Cardiff’s way.

All the effort was rewarded though with two more late goals, one from Matty Palmer assisted by Adam Hughes, and the final goal a fantastic angled chip from Ellis Sheppard, assisted by Owen Bradshaw, and the match finished 7-4.

Spirit of the game award went to Bryony Roberts for her consistently hard work in defence, which disrupted Peterborough’s scoring potential.

Although they suffered another loss, the under 12s should take a lot of encouragement from this effort, in the knowledge that they are knocking on the door for a win if they can play their game in this attacking vein for the full 40 minutes. Well done team.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:	Assisted by:
Scott Bird @22.45 Scott Bird @28.20 Matthew Palmer @32.40 Ellis Sheppard @ 35.20	Owen Bradshaw Adam Hughes Owen Bradshaw

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game:
13 (Ciaran Matthews) 9 (Caleb Davies)	Scott Bird	Bryony Roberts