First off, just before I get to my game review just wanted to say a quick well done to Lewis Hamilton on winning the F1 championship! To do it in Massa’s back yard made it equally special! Personally liked seeing the realisation on the Ferrari mechanics faces! Priceless!
Also a quick note on the Phoenix’ visit to the NIC Saturday night, it is a mark of how far this team has come that most Phoenix fans were disappointed we came away with nothing! Last season I would have taken a 5-4 loss as it meant a close game! But this time around I felt like it was two points lost! What hurts too is we obviously made such a good start. 2-0 up in the first and a thoroughly dominating performance! Never mind you can’t win em all!
Anyway onto the Devils, didn’t know what to think on this game beforehand, as it was the Devils’ first visit to the Dome for a league game this season. Plus I did not see the pre-season friendly either! It was always going to be a tough game as ive always thought we have been equal to Cardiff most seasons!
First Period: A very tense opening period, one, which emphasised how close each teams were. There was quite a lot of flowing hockey but I couldn’t help notice a few cheap shots, digs, holds coming in throughout the period. For the most part either team cancelled each other out and had me thinking it would be a low scoring game. However with Kyle Bruce in the box, Tony Hand scored a sublime 1 on 1 goal short handed. That man is class! I did still think he was probably tempted to pass rather than shoot! J
Second Period: The second started much like the first, however Cardiff started to come into the game and began to dominate. Why do the Phoenix do this? Our second period’s need to improve! It was coming and a little under 3 minutes into the second Cardiff were on the scoreboard! This succeeded in starting up the Cardiff drummer! Seriously it’s mostly noise and no tune!! (Very sorry but that’s my opinion!) Cardiff went 2-1 up on the powerplay and to be honest I couldn’t see us getting back into the game! But crikey was I wrong! In 24 seconds we went into the break 3-2 up after a quick ppg from Garbutt followed, just as Andy Costigan was reading out the scorers, by a goal from Parrish. A contender for goal of the season IMO. A wonderful flowing move from the Phoenix net all the way to the back of the Devils net!
Third Period: Those quick goals obviously spurred the Phoenix on and the third period was a dominating performance. Another ppg put the Phoenix two goals in front and then two sniper goals from Beauregard put the Phoenix out of sight!
Verdict: In the end a cracking win for the Phoenix against a very good Devils side. Im surprised they are where they are in the league. They do work hard, but they dig and hold a little too much for my liking. Anyway a good win especially after the loss the previous night! Plus it proves that the Phoenix can get down and dirty if they need to!
Attendance: Probably around 1,200 in last night, good noise despite this!
Another good evening down the Dome, made a little fraught by my car flashing an airbag failure warning – all cleared now! But topped off by a Phoenix win and Lewis winning in Brazil.
No comments:
Post a Comment