NEUTRAL VENUE, THE SOFA, with sore legs – For the first time in 4 seasons, the Cardiff Devils claimed a domestic title, after a roller coaster of a season for what could have been, ending in a perfect way, leaving a lot to think about.
The natural point of focus was how incredibly well the entire team was structured, how they applied themselves across the final weekend of the 2026 EIHL season and taking their chances.
The initial game was close, with the 8th seed Clan looking to make more history and build off the fantastic support and atmosphere they brought to the venue, along with the vibrant and energetic Devils supporters.
A game decided by an empty netter, ultimately went to the favourites, in a contest that was worthy of a semi-final.
The other, was a rout, between two extremely imbalanced teams, with the history makers of the Manchester Storm playing in their first ever appearance.
The end of season awards were announced across platforms of EIHL social media, their goal tender, Drew DeRidder, projected from my own player impact guide not too long ago, was left high and dry by a far stronger and experienced team.
Perhaps, if the league was settled on a different points format, this years playoffs would have looked a lot differently, however, you have to win the day to claim a place. Storm did that, with their coach heavily favourited to be Coach of the Year signing off for the season with nothing but pride.
The weekend itself will go without review, as another Welsh hockey team claimed a tournament win, a selfless shout out to the South Wales Reivers on their BHUK win.
Hence the sore legs
After witnessing 3 playoff title wins, seeing the Devils progress to the final was a proud, but expected moment. The form was there, the building blocks were there, the momentum was there.
The opponents were also there for the taking.
A tale of two halves could be used to describe the Grand Final, as Devils unleashed a sharp, dynamic and physically dominant opening third, leading at the break deservedly and comfortably.
In the second, the push back was on, a Tansey marker put them level, with the game tilting toward his teams’ favour.
Stoever, his defence and their line mates absorbed and battled for every puck, inch of ice and offensive drive. Despite what Steelers coach, Aaron Fox stated in his pre-game interview with Premier Sports, being switched on for a full 60 minutes was a little too unrealistic, thanks to a late double tap from Nolan Yaremko.
That was a gut punch too much for them, as they got out worked and muscled for the final third, with two empty netters to seal a triumphant end to the season for the team that deserved it the most.
Key Stand Outs to the Final 2026 EIHL Season Game
Nolan Yaremko
Undoubtedly, there will be speculation league wide of who stays, goes, retires, walks, flip flops and more from this point onward.
It is after all, the biggest conversational maker for the weekend amongst the booze, banter and out right ribbing of the fans whom adorn themselves with orange or northeast of Kinghorn, Scotland.
For a confident mention, Yaremko is a player who would have earned a stay to give the following season a run at, hopefully, injury free.
It was a damned shame he spent much of the season out with injury, playing just 14 regular season games. He stayed around, got healthy, stuck with the programme and paid it forward for his team.
To start the season, he was noticeably strong on the puck, creating space for his line mates, drawing in opposition players and finding niche shooting angles.
He also dropped the gloves with immense success.
A Cardiff Devil.
To get a measure of his impact, he played 26 competitive EIHL games, putting up 8 goals, with 17 total points. For a player routed by injury, that isn’t an awful return.
30% chance of goals.
65.4% of his GP, he will contribute.
In the cup, he went just shy of a point per game. For the playoffs, he went a point per game.
Following his most recent stint of games out (6 total), he then played 7, putting up 8 points. Over 1.14 points per game, a 57% increase in production.
That was a huge factor for his team and he produced when it really mattered. The brace of goals in the final, with a game winning goal (GWG), was the icing to a cake that was baked to perfection.
The previous game, his primary assist set up the GWG to book a place into the final, as was the case for the road game vs Blaze to start the playoffs.
Key moments, from a season that was searching for such a player, especially with a key forward out due to injury (Barrow), this was a very special moment for him indeed, as mentioned in his post game interview, ‘The best feeling’.
Christian Stoever
At a later stage, I will review the season long form, including from my own expectations and projections. For a sneak peak, this will be one of them.
Graded at C+, this was to avoid an over evaluation due to his rookie status. A gamble, with more weight to unknowns that lingered precariously for the first third of the season.
As Bowns was collecting shutouts, Stoever jumped in when needed, seeing the trend to sub .800 at one point. Then, as Bowns had injury issues, he was relied upon to hold the fort.
He stepped up. Massively.
Arguably one of the sneakiest ‘bit of business’ the league had seen this season, with no new goalie coming close as a back up. Drew DeRidder back stopped Storm to a season to be remembered, yet Stoever done something more.
He won a cup.
1.25 GAA and a 95 SV%, in the playoffs against two tough teams is a lot for a rookie. He done it with a sense of calm and assured presence.
Amongst all goalies, he slots in the top 10 across the board for league as well, including 4 shutouts across all EIHL competitions, the same as Whistle with a game less in regular season (3).
The new grade? A*. He was the only player that either met or exceeded expectations from the final signings announced at the summit.
In the final, he faced down the same amount of output as his own team gave Greenfield, who just the night before, set a franchise record for 25 EIHL shutouts as a Steeler. Making 23 saves and earning 91.30 SV%, he provided the edge for his team to build on and put the candle on the cake.
Team Power Play
Ever since a long call for Fournier to quarter back the Devils PP was answered, this team has had an undeniable symbiotic correlation with their results and how their PP has improved.
They were one of the most in-form teams leading into the playoffs, with a great record across April and most of March. Their PP also improved to point that it felt like each time they were going to score on it.
For the final, it ended on the game as 33.3%, with a fast PPG from Olischefski, which also capped a great season for the man who lead the group across the campaign.
At the time of writing, there are no official EIHL stats for the playoffs at all on their public website (seen below), so it is difficult to determine rates of success for comparative analysis.
What has been extremely evident was that the team had found their groove and confidence to make it work and in turn, get the results.
Finished 2nd overall and won the playoffs.
Mentality
You could go back to only recently when coach Paul Thompson lamented toward the attitude of the locker room, following spates of losses and being eliminated from title contention.
As soon as Giants were officially crowned EIHL champions, instead of collapsing internally, the team pushed on and clearly made the effort to focus on finishing the league as strong as possible and to build toward playoffs.
As mentioned in the build up and on the EIHL Face-Off Podcast, there were realistically two playoff ready teams built for this weekend, with two wild-card style misnomers that could turn the entire weekend on a dime if they desired too.
The playoff-ready teams were Storm and Devils.
As mentioned post-game via the EIHL, Joey Martin stated that they felt relief and pride of his team mates, ‘despite the title being won, they wanted to build to be ready for the playoffs’.
This was also mentioned by the coach, which their GM stated had pushed them hard and got the response they needed, as they ‘always felt they had more’. It was evident.
There was a switch, especially from the double header in Belfast. The gears were greased, the oil was changed and the road they drove through became easier as the weeks went by.
That is from leadership, buy in and most of all, mentality.
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