Cardiff Devils 8 Coventry Blaze 0

Cardiff Devils bounced back to winning ways with an emphatic 8-0 thrashing of Coventry Blaze at the Ice Arena Wales on Saturday night.

The Devils shrugged off the midweek defeat at Nottingham Panthers to maintain their six point lead in the Elite League.

Coach Andrew Lord struck twice as did Layne Ulmer as the Blaze were swept aside with ease.

Chris Culligan netted early with Guillaume Doucet also finding the net in the first period.

Ulmer and Lord then took over for the Devils to bag a brace apiece.

Luke Piggott added the seventh before new import Denny Kearney marked his home debut with the final goal.

But Cardiff’s two main rivals also won with Sheffield Steelers staying second with a 4-2 home win over the Panthers.

Belfast Giants remain a point further behind after seeing off Fife Flyers 4-2 with all three teams having eight games left.

The Devils face two games in Sheffield next month while the final weekend of the season sees them entertaining the Giants twice in Cardiff.

Lord’s side face a trip to Edinburgh Capital on Sunday and then travel to meet Manchester Storm next Friday.

Match stats:

Scorers, Devils: Layne Ulmer 2+0, Andrew Lord 2+0, Chris Culligan 1+1, Denny Kearney 1+1, Luke Piggott 1+0, Guillaume Doucet 1+0, Josh Batch 0+1, Matthew Myers 0+2, Patrick Asselin 0+1, Mark Richardson 0+1, Scott Hotham 0+1, Andrew Hotham 0+2, Gleason Fournier 0+1, Joey Martin 0+1.

Period scores (Devils first): 0-2; 0-3 (0-5); 0-3 (0-8).

Penalties in minutes: Devils 0+4+0=4; Blaze 4+2+0=6.

Shots on goal: Devils (on Stewart/Marr) 9+12+9=30; Blaze 6+6+8=20.

Referee: Dean Smith.

Attendance: 3,088.

Man of the match: Devils, Ben Bowns.