Cardiff Devils 3, Bili Tygri Liberec 7

Welshman Matthew Myers scored Cardiff Devils’ first ever Champions Hockey League goal on home ice when Czech champions Bili Tygri Liberec visited Ice Arena Wales.

Cardiff-born Myers tucked a shot over the shoulder of netminder Roman Will and into the top corner after less than four minutes.

Devils had Liberec reeling during the first period, skating out hard to take control, but overall the Czech team had far too much speed for their hosts.

Liberec won against Devils at home (5-2) after trailing by two goals and did the same again in Cardiff Bay.

Patrick Asselin made it 2-0 to Cardiff and Layne Ulmer also scored, but they suffered a third Champions Hockey League group defeat.

Devils now take on Swiss club HC Davos at home on Sunday (6pm).

Devils came out fast, hitting hard and hunting down Liberec players. To their credit, hone players were taking the body in a physical clash, but kept their discipline.

The Czech visitors were clearly rattled and finished the first period facing a Devils 5v3 powerplay after they were called for too many men on the ice.

That PP carried over into the second period.

Player-coach Andrew Lord was on the ice for Devils with Jamie Elson and Luke Piggott running the bench.

Cardiff went ahead after only three minutes 16 seconds when, with Liberec hanging on against steady pressure, Welshman Myers fired into the top corner as a Drew Paris assist.

Matt Pope’s shot was saved low down and home fans fired up the atmosphere with chants of ‘Devils, Devils’.

The puck hit goalie Will on the shoulder from Layne Ulmer’s shot and flew high into the air before Devils made it 2-0.

Asselin was the scorer from Joey Haddad’s assist on 4-47.

Liberal were struggling to settle against the Cardiff onslaught and when Paul Crowder’s passed across their net Josh Batch only just failed to get a touch with the net gaping in front of him.

When Mark Lewis was penalised Devils almost scored a shorthanded goal when Lord broke forward and slid a pass for Andrew Hotham. He dinked the puck wide of the netminder, but could not quite find the target.

Liberec gained some relief when Jan Ordos scored a powerplay goal on 12-25, but this was a feisty, aggressive period.

Jaroslav Vlach and Andrew Hotham dropped the gloves and fought after 16-17 with the Czech player given a two plus 10 minute penalty for misconduct. Hotham sat for two minutes on a roughing call.

At one stage there were six players in the two penalties boxes, four of them from Liberec.

The visitors killed off their penalties and levelled the scores when Martin Bakos skated clear and fired past goalie Ben Bowns (25-20).

Justin Faryna was penalties almost immediately for slashing and Liberec made the home team pay with a powerplay goal on 25-40 to take the lead.

Devils were far from finished and Ulmer smashed a shot high into the Liberec net after 29-53 with assists going to Gleason Fournier and Drew Paris.

Liberec hit back within eight seconds, regaining the lead from a Filip Pyrochta shot which flew in off the pipework, and scored their fifth of the match following a defensive error.

Bakos, skating away from goal after a loose puck, spun sharply and smashed a shot high into the Devils net.

Liberec led 5-3 going into the final period and added a sixth when Ordos fired home (41-46).

Bakos completed his hat-trick for Liberec, while Cardiff had Josh Batch thrown out on a five minutes plus game penalty for checking from behind.

Faryna was then given two minutes for roughing and the home team finished the match on a 3v5 penalty kill.

Liberec pulled their goalie, added an extra skater, and netted with five seconds of the match left. The officials, though, spotted that the visitors had sent on seven skaters instead of six and the effort was disallowed.

Match stats: 

Scorers, Devils: Matthew Myers 1+0, Patrick Asselin 1+0, Layne Ulmer 1+0, Drew Paris 0+2, Gleason Fournier 0+1, Joey Haddad 0+1.

Liberec: Martin Bakos 3+0, Jan Ordos 2+0, Filip Pyrochta 1+1, Jan Stransky 1+0, Dominik Lakatos 0+1, Lukas Jasek 0+3, Lukas Krenzelok 0+1, Milan Bartovic 0+1, Michal Bulir 0+1, Martin Sevc 0+1.

Period scores (Devils first) 2-1; 1-4 (3-5); 0-2 (3-7).

Penalties in minutes: Devils 6+2+31=39; Liberec 20+2+6=28.