Devils First To Book Place at Finals

Final Score; 7-4

Devils rode a ferocious storm on the banks of the River Tay as they battled to book their place in another POFW, the first from the final four games over this bracket.

They went from a goal down after early pressure to equalise then take the lead in good form, before steadying a turbulent game that threatened to boil over until Arniel scored short handed to effectively put it away.

Stars capitalised quickly on a third period power play to bring the game of the night back to one, but ultimately by that time the task was too great as Devils secured their POFW berth with a 7:4 aggregate win.

This will be the Devils 7th straight finals weekend, featuring in the last 5 Grand Finals, winning 3 of them. With Steelers romping through the Flyers on their way to the opening game next weekend, a lot of hopes will be heaped on Devils to make the final and spoil the parade for the grand slam aspirations of the men from Sheffield.

Stars piled the shots onto the Devils net heavily, as they were rightfully desperate to get back to evens in this tie, 72 in total with 52 SOG. Shot efficiency won the day in the end, Stars with just 3.85% and Devils at 10.71% respectively.

It was mentioned in the initial build up and highlighted in last nights post-gamer that the special teams would be a key maker in this series, especially as both teams are the worst disciplined on record.

This was realised massively in both ways for the Stars who claimed a PPG but gave one up short handed. Stars strangely earned 4 power plays to just one for the Devils, who on the night before earned a PPG for their own efforts as well.

Despite the shot deluge, accuracy fortuned the better team, with more high danger chances on the Stars net, as they looked to get close to Brine and put him under pressure.

Credit to the speed of the likes of Elmer and Naas, who looked to drive play rather than cause mayhem, it would be hard for Lefebvre to keep those players along with Valentini and Rinaldi.

Devils will play in the evening game as top seed on Saturday vs Giants, the last three times they faced off against each other in POFW action was in the Grand Final, with Giants recently completing a full domestic sweep of silverware last season in a 4:1 win.

The last time Giants lost a semi-final was vs Steelers in 2017, who went on to win vs Devils in OT.

This will be a tasty semi-final. Will it be a salvage operation for both teams or will one succumb to the might of the Steelers who look set to complete the slam this campaign?

My Three Stars From This Bracket;

Third Star; Tyler Busch – 2 Goals

Second Star; Ben Bowns – 94.51%SVS on 76 Saves

First Star; Jamie Arniel – 2 Goals, 1 Assist