It was party night at Ice Arena Wales in Cardiff Bay. Devils showed off the Monteith Bowl, presented to Elite League champions, and the Erhardt Conference winners trophy.

Both have been won by Devils for a second successive season.

The last four years have been an astonishing success for the Welsh club, who have won seven championships – two League titles, three Conference titles and two Challenge Cups – and have seen off the opposition again.

Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast and more have been left in Cardiff’s wake – and Welsh ice hockey fans celebrated wildly.

Jake Morissette was presented as the most successful captain in the 30-plus years history of the club, while Andrew Lord was hailed as the most successful head coach of those three decades.

That’s a huge compliment to ‘Mo’, quietly spoken and a man who leads the team by example. He has total respect in the locker room.

Consider the quality of past captains including Perry Olivier, Steve Moria, Paul Heavey, Doug McEwen, Stephen Cooper, Mike Ware, Ivan Matulik, Kirk DeWaele, Brad Voth, Ryan Finnerty, Stuart MacRae, Mac Faulkner, Tyson Marsh.

Captain ‘Mo’ really is the most successful skipper in Devils’ history.

Fans who have picked out Morissette for criticism on social media – and there have been more than a few – must feel really silly now. He is a remarkable man, a winner, highly skilled forward and a fabulous captain.

Morissette then showed a touch of real class when he stood back and insisted long-serving British defenceman Mark Richardson go forward and collect the Monteith Bowl. A magnificent gesture.

Lord’s record is even more remarkable. The rookie coach who has led Devils on a major sweep of domestic honours and taken Devils on a European mission.

They won two Champions League matches earlier this season – and now have a lot more knowledge ahead when they take their place in Europe again.

Lord’s men have won seven trophies. He has taken Devils beyond the fantastic achievements of John Lawless, Paul Heavey, Gerad Adams and more.

It is incredible. Lord is a man of rare quality in ice hockey coaching and will surely go join to greater achievements.

Red Army fans were ecstatic when the trophy was paraded by Devils players. They chanted ‘ We are number one’ and ‘Champions’, while Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’ blasted out during breaks in play.

Every Devils player paraded the League trophy – skating around the ice one after the other to huge cheers from supporters.

The chanted ‘Oh, Justin Faryna’ and ‘Drewww’ when defenceman Paris skated around the pad.

That reminded me of the ‘Stuuuuu’ chants when MacRae was captain.

It sounds as though fans are booing. Far from it. They are showing their respect, their admiration for players who have taken Cardiff Devils back to the number one position in Britain.

On the night Sheffield Steelers won 4-3, but there are a lot of factors behind that result. For Devils the match was difficult.

They had already won the title and it must have been hugely difficult to build themselves up for the challenge of a Steelers team who were fifth going into the fixture.

Sheffield simply had to make a point and they came out hard, intent on spoiling the celebrations. They succeeded to a point, but Devils hit back from 3-0 down, lost 4-3 and were only denied victory by magnificent goaltender Brad Day.

Man of the match Day led Steelers to victory. Andreas Valdix scored twice, Jonas Westerling on the powerplay with the game winner coming from Robert Dowd.

Two of those goals were scrambled affairs, but Devils were not at all bothered by a result which, on their terms, was meaningless.

“We played a great game” said Steelewrs coach Paul Thompson. “Brad played well here last week when we put him so we told him to go get us a win

“He was excellent, but so were the troops in front of him, collectively we deserved the victory tonight, especially without Davey in the line up.

“Our first period was first class, 19-3 we shot Cardiff, not many teams do that here.

“We had some early powerplays, which doesn’t always happen in this building, and it was good to take advantage of one and lead 3-0 early in the middle period

“Later, of course, we had to kill. Being put on a 5on3 for a face off violation was strange mind you. I haven’t seen that before.

“Guillaume Desbiens made the road trip and we showed the spirit he played with.

“Since Robert Dowd’s return we have seen that line with Levi Nelson and Andreas Valdix back at their best and they were strong offensively, scoring three of the four goals.”

Champions Devils are still waiting to find out who they will play in the play-off two-leg quarter-finals. It now looks certain to be Braehead Clan or Coventry Blaze.

Match stats:

Scorers, Devils: Matt Pope 1+0, Layne Ulmer 1+1, Justin Faryna 1+0, Andrew Hotham 0+1, Mark Richardson 0+2, Joey Haddad 0+1.

Steelers: Andreas Valdix 2+1, Jonas Westerling 1+0, Robert Dowd 1+1, Mathieu Roy 0+2, Mark Matheson 0+1, Ben O’Connor 0+1, Levi Nelson 0+1.

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

Shots on goal: Devils (on Day) 3+13+13=29; Steelers 19+12+8=39.

Power plays: Devils 0/3; Steelers 1/4.

Penalties in minutes: Devils 2+10+0=12; Steelers 2+8+2=12.

Attendance: 3,095.

Referees: Mike Hicks and Matt Thompson.

Stars of the game: Devils, Layne Ulmer; Steelers, Brad Day.

Remaining Devils fixtures in the regular season (play-offs start later this month):

Wednesday 21 v Manchester Storm H (7.30pm)

Saturday 24 v Belfast Giants H (7pm)

Sunday 25 v MK Lightning H (6pm)

CLICK HERE to book a ticket for any of the remaining fixtures. Call 0800 0842 666 to book via the phone.

ELITE LEAGUE STANDINGS

Regular 2017/18 – all teams okay 56 matches

Rk	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	WPCT	Pts
1	Cardiff Devils	53	39	11	1	2	.764	81
2	Manchester Storm	53	34	14	3	2	.689	73
3	Fife Flyers	53	33	18	1	1	.642	68
4	Belfast Giants	53	32	19	2	0	.623	66
5	Sheffield Steelers	53	31	19	2	1	.613	65
6	Guildford Flames	53	27	17	5	4	.594	63
7	Nottingham Panthers	52	29	18	2	3	.606	63
8	Braehead Clan	54	24	24	5	1	.500	54
9	Coventry Blaze	54	24	25	4	1	.491	53
10	Dundee Stars	53	22	27	3	1	.453	48
11	Milton Keynes Lightning	53	19	32	1	1	.377	40
12	Edinburgh Capitals	54	5	48	0	1	.102	11