DEVILS OPEN THE WEEKEND WITH WIN OVER GIANTS

Ben Bowns got the start in goal on Saturday night with his old foe Tyler Beskorowany starting in goal for the Giants.  It was the ideal start for the Devils in game one of the weekend double header in Belfast.  Henrik Erikkson was called for slashing just 2:54 into the game and Cole Sanford scored on the powerplay with a rocket over the shoulder of Beskorowany to make it 1-0 at 3:26. 

The Devils doubled their lead at 10:52 when a shot from the blueline by Evan Mosey was deflected past Beskorowany to make it 2-0 and silence the home crowd.  The Devils killed off a Josh Waller penalty and held their two goal lead into the first intermission. 

72 seconds into period two, Trevor Cox placed a perfect pass onto the stick of Mosey streaking past the last Belfast defender and tipping the puck into the Belfast net to give the Devils a 3-0 lead.  Then 48 seconds later Tyler Busch was left all alone in front for Riley Brandt to find him and Busch backhanded the puck off the post and in to make it 4-0 with 38 minutes still to play. 

That sparked a change in netminder for the Giants who replaced Beskorowany with Jackson Whistle.  The Giants finally got on the board at 24:54 with a powerplay goal after Tyler Busch was called for slashing.  Oliver Cooper beat Bowns at the back door to make it 4-1.  The Giants had another powerplay moments later when Sanford was called for hooking but a mishap by the Giants sprung Cox on a breakaway and he slid the puck between the legs of Whistle to make it 5-1 at 29:54.  Ben Lake pulled a goal back at 33:54 for the Giants but the period ended with the Devils leading 5-2. 

The third period saw the Giants pour on the offensive pressure trying to get an early goal and get back into the game.  The Giants outshot the Devils 13-3 in the final 20 minutes, but Bowns was on top form and made some big saves to hold the Devils lead.  The Giants did get a third goal, this time off a face-off play that saw Josh Roach finish off a pass from Jeff Baum and beat Bowns at 47:11 to give the Giants some life and cut the Devils lead to 5-3.   

Marcus Crawford was called for holding at 54:46 to give the Giants a late powerplay, but the Devils killed it off brilliantly with some key blocked shots from Jamie Arniel and Mark Richardson.  Adam Keefe pulled his goalie with over two minutes to play in favour of the extra skater, but the risk didn’t pay off.  At 58:11, Cole Ully broke up a play in the Devils, turned and flipped the puck out of the zone and it went the length of the ice into the empty net for his second goal of the game. 

The final score was 6-3 and Ully picked up Man of the Match with his 2 goals. Evan Mosey and Cole Sanford both had 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist) and Ben Bowns made 35 saves for the win.   

Photos courtesy of William Cherry