Fife Flyers swept aside by strong Cardiff Devils after long road trip to Wales

They found Cardiff Devils in top form, and the hosts swept them aside with goals to spare. Both sides faced long bus journeys - Devils travelling back from a Friday win in Manchester, Flyers making the trip from Kirkcaldy.

Both sides weren’t short of chances in the opening 20 minutes, but the first period ended with just one goal between the teams. Zach O’Brien was the scorer, getting on the end of an Andrew MacWilliam shot that was deflected en route to Shane Owen, and neatly deking past Flyers’ goalie.

Fife should have been level shorthanded but failed to capitalise on both a two on zero, and a two on one while killing. Joey Martin could just as easily have doubled the home side’s lead but Owen denied him on a shorthanded breakaway.

As they had done in the first period, Devils struck inside five minutes of the second to extend their advantage. Josh Batch, playing as a forward, found Sam Duggan in the slot with enough space to set himself for a top-shelf finish that Owen had no chance of stopping.

The hosts should, have added more to their tally but Owen kept his team in the game through the next five minutes as Fife offered very little in the way of attacking threat in the period, struggling to get anything going on the powerplay and were fortunate to only be two behind after 40 minutes.

O'Brien's fancy hands saw him make it 3-0 2:05 into period three as Devils took full control. Lucas Chiodo one-timed Daniel Krenželok's feed into the net to break Ben Bowns' shutout with 9:38 to play, but two quick goals from Josh MacDonald, and then a loose puck that snuck past Owen credited to Tyler Busch wrapped up a 5-1 win.

Tom Coolen, head coach, said: “We had opportunities to score. The first couple of periods we competed hard but didn’t score. We didn’t execute well on our powerplay. Cardiff are playing four lines and we are playing tree and at some point that kicks in for them and against us. They are a good hockey team. They are better than they were last year - bigger and stronger.”