Ice Hockey: Devils end a four-year drought at the Panthers

Nov 5 2007 by Terry Phillips, South Wales Echo

Nottingham Panthers 1-2 Cardiff Devils

CARDIFF Devils continued their drive towards the top of ice hockey's Elite League last night with a magnificent triumph at Nottingham Panthers.

The Devils had not won at Nottingham Ice Centre in league, cup or play-off games since October 2003, but they continued their winning sequence with a second successive victory of the weekend.

Cardiff, who defeated Basingstoke Bison 8-4 on Saturday, are now clear in fourth place and threatening Sheffield just above them.

And there was more good news for Cardiff when they qualified for the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.

Coventry’s failure to beat Belfast Giants in a group match left Cardiff and Nottingham to qualify for the semi-finals.

Jason Silverthorn scored four goals over the weekend, taking his tally to 12 in total and making him Cardiff's top scorer. He netted the first at Nottingham with Sean McAslan levelling matters for the home side.

And then, with Tyson Teplitsky in the bin for the Devils on a hooking penalty, Silverthorn netted a short-handed game winner on 20 minutes 17 seconds assisted by Sylvain Deschatelets and Mike Garrow.

Statistics: Panthers: Sean McAslan 1+0; Johan Molin 0+1; Patrik Wallenberg 0+1.

Devils: Jason Silverthorn 2+0; Tyson Teplitsky 0+1; Sylvain Deschatelets 0+1; Mike Garrow 0+1.

Penalties: Panthers 9+6+0=15; Devils 7+6+4=17

Shots on goal: Panther 8+11+14=33; Devils10+12+1 = 23

Period scores (Panthers first) 0-1, 1-0 (1-1); 0-1 (1-2).

ON Saturday Sylvain Deschatalets weighed in with an outstanding six assists in their win against Basingstoke.

Statistics: Devils: Deschatelets 0+6, Silverthorn 2+1, Sample 2+0, Birbraer 1+1, Teplitsky 1+1, Garrow 1+0, Voth 1+0, Petricko 0+2, Prpich 0+1.

Bison: Chambers 2+0, Jarvis 1+0, Thornton 1+0, Owen 0+2, Peto 0+1, Cruikshank 0+1, Wood 0+1, Koulikov 0+1, Stewart 0+1.

Period Scores (Devils first): 1-2; 4-0 (5-2); 3-2 (8-4).

Shots on Goal: Devils 31; Bison 48.

Penalty Minutes: Devils: 4+2+25=31; Bison:4+10+49=63.