Andrew Lord will demand ‘energy and fire’ from his players when they when they play Fife Flyers at home on Sunday evening.
Head coach Lord and his team have suffered highly damaging defeats against Coventry Blaze (0-5) and Manchester Storm (1-4) and badly need a big performance when Flyers arrive ing South Wales.
“I expected us to have more horses at the races in Manchester and we didn’t,” said Lord. “We were okay. There were good spells and sloppy spells.
“Overall, our execution wasn’t good enough. Manchester played great and really competed hard. They have high end skill up front, their defencemen make it difficult and they have one of the better goaltenders (Matt Ginn) in Elite League.
“We need to find energy and fire for our home match against Fife. We must back to playing to our identity as we did for that good six-week period we had before.
“We need a big home performance.”
Devils have managed one goal in two hours of hockey since the turn of the year and conceded nine – falling back to five points behind leaders Sheffield Steelers.
Matt Pope scored a first period goal for Devils and they led 1-0 at the first break in Altrincham.
It was a free flowing first period at the Storm Shelter with plenty of chances at both ends. The deadlock was broken at 18-36 when Pope fired a slap-shot on the powerplay.
The only goal of the period made the score 1-0 to Cardiff going into the first period break.
Storm equalised early in the second period after Puskarich hit a post and Cameron Critchlow scored from the rebound at 23-19
It was 1-1 going into the third period before Storm took control in the last 10 minutes. The hosts scored at 50-49 when Scott Simmonds slotted the puck between Bowns’ skate and the near post.
Storm almost extended their lead moments later, but were denied by a spectacular Bowns double save before Kyle Hope made it 3-1 (54-29).
Bowns was pulled with just over two minutes left in favour of an extra Devils skater, but it wasn’t to be for the visitors. They conceded an empty net goal at 58-50 when Fawcett scored with netminder Ginn awarded the assist.
Sunday fixtures:
4pm Belfast Giants v Coventry
4.30pm Glasgow Clan v Sheffield Steelers
5.30pm Manchester Storm v Nottingham Panthers
6pm Cardiff Devils v Fife Flyers
6pm Guildford Flames v Dundee Stars
Match stats, Storm v Devils:
Scorers, Storm: Cameron Critchlow 1+0, Scott Simmonds 1+0, Kyle Hope 1+0, Tyson Fawcett 1+0, Layne Ulmer 0+1, Matt Ginn 0+1, Mario Puskarich 0+1, Mathieu Gagnon 0+2, Raymond Grewal 0+1
Devils: Matt Pope 1+0. Gleason Fournier 0+1, Mike McNamee 0+1
Period scores (Storm first): 0-1; 1-0 (1-1); 3-0 (4-1)
Shots on goal: Storm (on Ben Bowns) 18+15+13=46, Devils (on Matt Ginn) 22+11+10=43
Penalties in minutes: Storm 2+4+0=6; Devils 2+6+2=10
Powerplays: Storm 5, Devils 3
Face-offs won: Storm 36, Devils 26
Attendance: 1,191
Referee: Matt Thompson, Mads Fransen
Men of the match: Storm, Tyson Fawcett; Devils, Gleason Fournier
Cardiff Devils team:
Netminders: Ben Bowns (back-up Thomas Murdy)
First line: Mark Richardson, Gleason Fournier, Joey Haddad, Stephen Dixon, Charles Linglet
Second line: Shaone Morrisonn, Sam Jardine, Matt Pope, Blair Riley, Sean Bentivoglio
Third line: Mark Louis, Sean McMonagle, Bryce Reddick, Mike McNamee, Masi Marjamaki
Fourth line: Sam Duggan, Matthew Myers, Josh Batch
Saturday Elite League results:Belfast Giants 4, Coventry Blaze 1; Sheffield Steelers 6, Guildford Flames 2; Nottingham Panthers 5, Dundee Stars 4 (after overtime); Manchester Storm 4, Cardiff Devils 1; Fife Flyers 3, Glasgow Clan 4.
Elite League standings
| # | Team | GP | Score | Pts |
| 1 | Sheffield Steelers | 33 | 144:96 | 45 |
| 2 | Cardiff Devils | 29 | 99:88 | 40 |
| 3 | Belfast Giants | 31 | 99:79 | 40 |
| 4 | Nottingham Panthers | 31 | 99:85 | 38 |
| 5 | Guildford Flames | 29 | 84:80 | 33 |
| 6 | Coventry Blaze | 31 | 113:117 | 31 |
| 7 | Glasgow Clan | 30 | 99:114 | 29 |
| 8 | Manchester Storm | 31 | 81:104 | 26 |
| 9 | Fife Flyers | 31 | 84:107 | 24 |
| 10 | Dundee Stars | 32 | 94:126 | 22 |
Devils tickets: Online HERE or by calling 0800 0842 666. If you’ve been wanting to experience block 13, now is your perfect chance. If you’ve already got a ticket booked or are a season ticket holder who’d like to move, email zp@cardiffdevils.com