Swindon 1 - 2 Cardiff Junior Devils

Sunday 18th saw the Cardiff Devils U14's travel to Swindon in their first road game of 2009 to take on their rivals the Swindon Pumas. Cardiff entered the game on a good run of form, unbeaten in their last four games, and sat in third place in the table, just one point ahead of the Pumas. A win would return Cardiff to second spot, whilst putting a gap between them and Swindon.

The first period started at a fast pace with the Swindon team getting all the early pressure and pinning the Devils in their end for the first few minutes. The Devils had an opportunity to score through Tom Parkinson and Owen Griffiths as they worked the puck to Jack Rees who managed a great shot from the point which headed for the top corner through a crowd of players, only to be stopped by a fine save by Josh Bonello in the home net. Cardiff looked stronger at the end of the period but it finished 0-0.

The second period started much like the first, with Swindon again coming out stronger at the start, and forcing the Devils on the back foot but James Whiting in the Cardiff net was on top of his game again, producing several fine saves.

Swindon battled hard around the net to keep the Devils out but Cardiff Captain Kieran Latchford managed to force the puck home on the near post after some hard battling behind the goal line, to send the away team into the break a goal up.

The Cardiff team skated back onto the ice for the third period to great backing from the travelling support, and started the period stronger with Tom Parkinson coming close with two efforts after skating the puck into the Pumas end.

Swindon bounced back and really put pressure on the Cardiff back line but again Whiting stood strong, and produced a fine double save, quickly sliding across his net to deny the Pumas.

Pumas Floyd Taylor finally managed to find a way past Whiting when he skated the puck across the Cardiff blue line and chipped it on goal. A sudden change of direction caught out Whiting and found the net to tie up the game with ten minutes left.

It was with 2.06 left in the final period that the tie was broken. Devils Myles Chapman skating hard down the left wing, and threw a quick shot at goal from a tight angle which deflected in off the Swindon net-minder and sent the away team into mass celebration. A hard fought 2-1 win lifted Cardiff back to second place.

Man of the match went to James Whiting with his best display of the season in net.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:	Assisted by:
Kieran Latchford 1+0 Myles Chapman 1+0

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game:
CARDIFF DEVILS GOAL (James Whiting): 21 SWINDON PUMAS: 31	James Whiting