Post-Game Review vs Panthers; 3 Key Takeaways

League Record So Far; 27 – 1 – 10, 55pts, 2nd Place

It lived up to its reputation, provided hype and for a neutral, what a game.

An early lead that seemed to come from a tip by Crandall, but was ultimately deflected by Alderson gave the visitors an early lead and a perfect start.

This gave the Devils some early pep in their stride after starting well, then the double tap came not long after. Within 5 minutes, they were down 2-1. The creeping feeling of expected despair on the road at Nottingham has well and truly started.

This score was maintained for much of the period, despite a lot of Devils pressure and carrying. They were relentless, never gave up, eventually, Goal Sanford found a way with a sweet play in the mid slot zone to level the scores.

Possibly deflected by the Goat, either way, the scores were reset again and they continued to mount the pressure. They ended the period with SOG at 13:11 in their favour.

In the middle frame, things were all Devils until the final couple minutes. Some extra tips and class from Arniel, put them on the front foot again, this time for a two goal lead and lot great play offensively. They dominated the second dance with 17:13 for SOG.

There was a chance to really put the game to bed with a 2 + 2 high sticking call, which ultimately went unconverted, then after a similar infraction on Ully, the home team rallied just after the penalty ended to claw the game back to just one goal with 23s left on the clock.

This was when the home team kicked into action, the feeling that each attack and one entry was dangerous, none more than Henbrant. He had the most SOG that game (6) whilst opening their scoring himself.

The home team came good with their offense, 15:9 SOG over the Devils and 3 unanswered goals. The evening got capped off with a complete bench capitulation, presumably over due process for goal reviews, despite it being a good goal anyway.

Surely a multi-game ban will be coming, as there has been a previous incident vs Dundee to consider, but with it being on the eve of their biggest game to date this season, will it affect them on the night or will this be the league leaders start of a well earned victory parade to close out the 23/24 season?

Special Teams

Despite a squandered double high sticks call, the PP did come up good. Devils sit as 26.96% and 2nd to the league leaders for power plays, so all in all, a maintained effort to be proud of.

They killed 100% of their penalties on the night, lifting them to 6th overall with 76.19%. This is a big improvement, which saw them 2nd bottom not so long ago.

Ones To Watch – Stepped Up

Each of the players highlighted provided something in this game, true to form in their cases. For both teams, these players couldn’t be avoided, they were in the thick of the play, for better or worse and were a constant threat.

Arniel put up 2 goals, including a PPG, his third of the season. Sanford extended his goal streak and place on top of the rest for 26 this year.

Crawford added an assist to maintain his own form and pace 42 points and league leading 40 apples. He is 8 apples shy of last seasons DOTY contribution, projected for a round number of 60 points this season. Heading for esteemed company to the likes of Hotham and G. Fournier.

Hugo Roy and Michaud also added their names to the points tally for their teams impressive comeback win. A standout performance went to Didrik Henbrant.

Between The Pipes

Both goalies made 32 saves from the offensive action, with a total of 103 shots attempted toward them, amazingly Wall got away MOTM honours.

Despite some lapses in defence, with some cool breakaways either end, there wasn’t much to go by for high danger chances or even mid danger (12:10 respectively).

Most shots (Devils) were fired from point and top centre of the blue line, so its either a night of speculative chance shots through traffic or good line work defensively by each team to box away attacking threats.

For Panthers, they found their way to the net often, so perhaps breakdowns whilst collapsing defensively helped to pave that direction for them.

Heat Map of Total Shots on Goal, taken from EIHL @ https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/game/4060-not-car/tracking

Either way, 9 goals combined for a night to forget for the warriors between the pipes, where luck for the forwards would warrant them to want some of those goals back.