IIHF – Cardiff claims Continental crown

It was third time lucky for Cardiff Devils in their quest for Continental Cup glory. Beaten finalists in the past two seasons, the Welsh team made no mistake in Sunday’s decisive game against Bruleurs de Loups. A powerful second period set up a convincing 6-1 victory, garnished by a hat-trick from Brett Perlini.

That gave Cardiff the trophy for the first time in the organisation’s history. The Devils are only the second team from Britain’s Elite League to win the competition, following Nottingham Panthers’ triumph in 2017. But make no mistake, in this part of the world it’s very much a matter of Welsh pride when a triumphant chorus of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of our Fathers) reverberates around a packed Vindico Arena.

For Bruleurs de Loups, this was a game in which ill-discipline cost dearly. Penalty trouble on Saturday against GKS Katowice turned a strong first-period performance into an arm-wrestle before the French emerged victorious in a shoot-out. Today, penalty trouble from the start meant that Grenoble always struggled to assert itself.

Bruleurs took two penalties in six minutes, both in Devils’ territory. The first of those saw Cardiff take the lead on 5:17. At first it seemed that Cole Sanford’s feed had fallen just behind Kohen Olischefski, but he produced a neat drag to capture the puck before dishing it off for Tyler Busch to finish.

The goal got a capacity crowd at Vindico Arena excited and their team responded with more pressure on the Grenoble net. The visitor kept the officials busy and was forced to kill 69 seconds with three men.

Despite surviving that scare, Bruleurs had to absorb more pressure at equal strength. However, the Devils could not find the second goal and paid the penalty towards the end of the first period. When Andrew MacWilliam sat for interference, the French PP fashioned a tying goal. Aurelian Dair, last night’s shoot-out hero, punished Cardiff’s earlier profligacy when he smoked one home from the left-hand circle to make it 1-1.

In other circumstances, that might have prompted jitters. But it turns out that Cardiff loves a big second period. Tonight, as in the tournament opener on Thursday, the Devils began the middle frame tied and returned to the locker room up 5-1. Two goals from Brett Perlini, plus further tallies from Josh MacDonald and Cole Sanford took the game away from Bruleurs and kickstarted the party in the Welsh capital.

GB international Perlini restored Cardiff’s lead in…