Cardiff Junior Devils 3 - 1 Guildford

Saturday the 3rd of January saw the Cardiff Devils U14's entertain the Guildford Firestorm in the first match of the New Year. Cardiff have had a strong start to the year and wanted this to continue. These two teams had already met two weeks before with Cardiff claiming a hard fought 2-1 away win in the Guilford Spectrum. Going into this match both teams were tied for points in joint third, and knew that the winners would move up to second place in the league and into the Play-off spots, and so it going to be a tough encounter.

Cardiff got off to strong start putting early pressure on Connor Standing in the Guildford goal, and forcing the visiting team to battle hard. Standing in net who was strong in the away game, was forced into action early with some fine saves to keep the game level, but was finally beaten half way through the period. After some good pressure from Owen Griffiths behind the net, Tom parkinson found himself free in front of net to get off a shot which beat the keeper only to hit the post and bounce out. Cardiff regained the puck amongst the scrabble that ensued, and it was Joseff Lawrence that got the final touch, battling hard and forcing the puck between the net-minders legs, giving Cardiff a deserved lead. The Devils continued to push the Guildford team hard, but the period ended 1-0.

The second period started much the same as the first, with Cardiff out of the gate quick and getting early pressure. And with a Guildford player serving a penalty in the bin, Cardiff were given the man advantage early on, and capitalised within seconds. The Devils won an attacking face-off back to Defenseman Jack Randall on the point, who fired in a shot that went through a crowd and beat the keeper, for his first goal of the season. This second goal though seemed to kick Guildford into life, as they came out hard after this goal and had the best of the remaining second period, putting Cardiff under pressure with several quick brakes, and got their reward when Josh Condren beat the Cardiff defence and netminder to half the difference and end the period 2-1 to the Devils.

The period break did the U14 Devils some good, and gave them a chance to re-group and get back to their game, as they came out in the third period looking the much stronger team again and took the match to Guilford, looking for a goal to restore the two goal lead. The line of Kieran Latchford, Ellis Price, and Giacamo Raffealli really stretched the away teams defence, and had long periods of pressure, only to see Standing in the away net turn away shot after shot and frustrate Cardiff. Eventually the pressure would pay off though, and it was another of Cardiff's Defensemen who would find the net. This time assistant Captain Joe Morris, won the puck in the neutral zone, before skating it forward across the visitors blue-line, and letting go a hard slapshot to the top corner to make it 3-1. Guildford continued to battle though and did have two very good late chances to try and pull the game back, but were denied by James Whiting in goal, who again looked very solid in net for the Devils. Final score Cardiff 3 Guildford 1. Cardiff go into second spot, and now face a big match up against Swindon away on the18th of January.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:	Assisted by:
Joseff Lawrence 1+0 Jack Randall 1+0 Joe Morris 1+0

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game:
Guildford Goal - 28 Cardiff Goal (James Whiting) - 14	Ellis Price	Myles Chapman