Fife Flyers: shut out on the longest of road trips to Cardiff
Fife Flyers made the long road trip to south Wales to face Cardiff Devils - and returned with a 5-0 drubbing.
The Principality has produced few wins or points throughout their EIHL era, and this followed an all too familiar pattern despite Flyers being in the game for two periods.
Three goals in the last stanza saw Devils cruise home and inflict an 18th straight league loss on the Kirkcaldy side who are marooned in last spot with one point - six behind ninth placed Dundee Stars, and eight off a play-off spot. Flyers headed south with a number of absentees once again, while there was still no debut for new signings Anton Karlsson or David Booth – once again they battled hard and gave all they had, but until they are restored to rude health and new faces are on board, they are stuck in a holding pattern.
They also had to face a landmark night for the Welsh side defenceman Mark Richardson played his 1,178th Elite League game, breaking Jonathan Phillips’ all-time league appearance record.
Cardiff took the lead with just over 14 minutes gone in the opening period. Kristof Kontos skated through on Shane Owen and finished off an excellent pass from Josh MacDonald to make it 1–0.
Fife kept themselves in the game during the second period, with Owen and the crossbar combining to deny Devils a second, but Cardiff eventually doubled their advantage. With 3:51 left in the middle frame, Joey Martin pounced on a big rebound from Kohen Olischefski’s effort to put the hosts two up.
Early in the third, Devils added to their lead as an Olischefski shot was redirected past Owen only 1:49 into the period. Olischefski struck again just under seven minutes later, giving Cardiff full control of the game.
Tyson Helgesen rounded off the scoring with 3:40 remaining, sealing a comfortable home victory and a special night for Richardson.