Cardiff Devils fans paid tribute to the most successful coach in the club’s 30-plus years history last night.

Andrew Lord returned to the ice in what could be his final playing appearance for the Devils during their 7-3 Elite League win against Milton Keynes Lightning.

More than 3,000 fans gave Lord a standing ovation an, fittingly, he scored the seventh goal against Lightning in Cardiff’s final League match.

Paul Sullivan from Nutshell Events led the tributes with his TrustintheLord video (below) and Devils fans loved it.

Canadian Lord is now focused on coaching, although he will maintain fitness and remain ready in case he is needed during an injury crisis next season.

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Devils have won seven trophies in the four seasons Lord has been player-coach and the facts are clear.

Remarkably, Lord 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.

His Devils team ended the regular season as back2back League champions, 10 points clear at the top, Erhardt Conference winners, most goals for and the second lowest goals against tally.

The standard of British hockey is higher than it has ever been before – teams includes 14 quality imports – and yet Devils suffered only 12 regulation losses in 56 matches.

Lord and his players have one more target this season and they are intent on completing an ice hockey triple crown.

They have won the League title and conference, while they go into the end-of-season play-offs aiming to be crowned champions for the first time since 1999.

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Devils play Coventry Blaze in a two-leg play-off quarter-final clash. The first leg is at the Coventry SkyDome on Sunday, while the return is at Ice Arena Wales on Sunday, April 1 (6pm).

If Cardiff can win the play-offs for the first time in almost two decades their feat will be shown live on national television.

The  2018 PredictorBet Playoff Grand Final will once again be shown live by the BBC.

The showpiece event of the British ice hockey season, the PredictorBet Playoff Grand Final, will be available Worldwide on connected (or smart) TVs, the BBC Sport app, and the BBC Sport website.

Saturday’s semi-finals will be available to watch online on EIHL.TV.

The finals weekend is at the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham on Saturday, April 7 and Sunday, April.

The first semi-final will take place at 1pm on the Saturday, with the second semi-final starting at 5pm.

The final will face-off at 4pm on the Sunday.

Devils’ play-off opponents Coventry suffered defeat in their final regulation season fixture, going down 5-3 against Guildford Flames.

Gaelan Patterson put the Blaze ahead after 10 minutes, but Flames were back on level terms just 22 seconds later when Kruise Reddick set up John Dunbar, who duly beat Coventry goaltender Kevin Nastiuk.

Brett Robinson restored Coventry’s lead 34 seconds before the second period ended.

Guildford levelled the scores again through Brett Ferguson, who netted a shorthanded goal, before Ryan Dingle firedBlaze ahead for a third time with less than five minutes left.

A quickfire treble turned the game back in Guildford’s favour. Kris Reddick (56-33), Geoff Walker (56-51) and Calle Ackered (57-13) were the Flames’ scorers.

The full PredictorBet play-offs quarter-final line-up is: Cardiff Devils v Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm v Fife Flyers, Sheffield Steelers v Guildford Flames, Nottingham Panthers v Belfast Giants (Overtime and penalties will be used after the second leg if needed).

Tickets for the play-off quarter-final home leg against Blaze can be purchased by CLICKING HERE or by ringing 0800 0842 666.