Challenge Cup So Far; 6-3-0, 12pts, 1st Place
CARDIFF, WALES – The Devils pulled off a fantastic four point weekend against two of their biggest rivals in the cup to take the lead, be the first in their group to guarantee progression and all with a game to spare.
Here is a recap of how things went for the men in red;
1. Home Shutout extends two streaks
For many, the home win vs Steelers, with a shutout, felt more like defeat than something to celebrate. Hockey truly is a spot unto itself.
This included myself, as I watched on nervously, hoping for another goal to provide that buffer whilst simultaneously expecting a flurry of greasy goals against, due to an extremely poor defensive set up.
The goal to get ahead was another early marker, just 43s into the opening stanza, Barrow to Brandt to Kontos. Superb.
All three of course, were big mentions in the pre-game/weekend top 5 players to watch; found here – https://hockeysteve.co.uk/2026/10/21/5-devils-to-watch-this-weekend/
Exactly how a professional sports writer understands and presents the game.
Beyond that, the game became a misnomer. The good guys were outshot 13:10 in the first and 13:4 in the final frame.
For Stoever, he extended his own streak, to 7 games (then one more of course) making 32 saves for his second shutout of the season, going undefeated across 8 straight games this season. On the weekend, he made 62 saves.
Stoever is now 4 games from 50 in the EIHL.
Again, pointing to vulnerability of line defense.
For the home team, they extended their impressive home run to 17 straight competitive games at the Vindico Arena in the EIHL, with an additional 6 for pre-season and ‘home’ seeded matches in the playoffs.
2. Point Streaks Continue
As previously mentioned, the streaks some players were on looked promising, such as Kontos on a multi-game heater, which fell flat at Nottingham.
Barrow meanwhile, Added a goal and an assist on the weekend to extend his point streak to 5 straight cup games. His ENG to seal the win for Devils and dump out the Panthers was his 60th in the EIHL and is now one apple shy of a century.
Olischefski added a point via an assist on Sunday vs Panthers, adding to his strongest start as a Devil, requiring just two games to reach 150 all time EIHL.
Brandt still needs just 3 more goals to reach 50 in the EIHL and 11 points for 100 all time. He heads into the game vs Giants on Wednesday on a 4 game point streak in regular season.
Lastly, MacDonald put up two assists on Sunday to add to his fantastic start this season, he also goes into the game vs Giants on a heater of 5 straight regular season games with points.
3. A second round berth, one game to spare
Other than their next opponents, Devils are the only team to be comfortably through to the next round of the challenge cup, no matter the results of what little group games are to spare.
This is due to their share of regulation wins (5) compared to others, especially Steelers and Flames.
The latter have played their hand, holding third for now. Steelers have one game spare also, with one regulation win less than Devils.
Both teams face the Storm to round off their group stage campaign, who, with three games to play, may just have the final hand to deal a knockout blow to Flames at the very least.
Last season, Devils missed out on the next round whilst being on 12 points, qualifying to progress for the first time in two seasons.
As mentioned extensively, the magic number in the group stage to avoid, was 4 losses. Only Devils and Steelers in group A have less, with 3 each.
Considering how the team looked after 6GP, this was a huge turn around, even if those games weren’t pretty nor spectacles.
4. Injuries, adversity, expectations < points secured
Even with some players still out injured, illnesses within the club, decisions made for or against and the huge expectations from the fanbase, the team found ways to win.
Whether it was a snooze-fest that ended 1:0 against a big rival that played poor or on the road, even in Nottingham, to claim their first regulation win of the season away from the Vindico.
The players stuck to their game plan, shown they can tighten their systems and get a job done.
Even when errant calls goes against, they sometimes get called in your favour. That is the nature of the game and you play what is in front of you.
These might not be league points, but those wins would serve as reminders of what can be done, both ways.
Cardiff Devils still remain the team to beat, for the third successive start to a season.
They have accumulated 75% of all available points across both EIHL competitions so far this season, topping both the league and their cup group.
Yet, we as fans still have something to bemoan – although such is sport and fickleness of fans, that is a great bar to lean upon, as it could be much worse.
5. Caron still missing after 14 games
He drew a costly penalty at Panthers, before defiance of logic by the coaching staff, being out on the PK for the follow up from a 5 on 3 penalty that brought Panthers back.
In the same game, he was on the ice for a goal by Mosey on his unexpected return this weekend, yet somehow, was accredited for an assist, despite not touching the puck in the build up, or being anywhere near the play in the first place.
If that doesn’t get amended, it would be criminal and questionable, even if some fans think he does deserve a break – a player has to be directly involved on the goal to get noted on the game sheet.
For this reason, after extensive review and fact checking independently, the consensus concluded that the goal was only assisted by Estes, with questions on the game management by Caron and an alarming omission to play the puck to him by Mosey.
If his pointless streak continues after the next game, surely a new import would be sought to help provide security to the production going into a busy winter period of fixtures?
Extra Time
A little pointer before looking ahead, there were 44 hits thrown during the game vs Steelers, with Devils leading 27:17 on the night.
They hit the body constantly in the first, launching ahead 15:5 then 20:8 in the second stanza.
To say there was a lack of physicality because there wasn’t many goals is bizarre.
Perhaps some need more than just the eye test to navigate and understand what they see and how they read the game.
A Look Ahead to Giants on Wednesday
League Form So Far; 4-0-1, 9pts, 1st Place
Two of the leagues’ most in form teams clash again early in the campaign, as they turn their attentions to the grandest prize, the EIHL league title.
Devils were victorious from their last encounter, a rare opening season win at home vs the Giants, a record that went back 5 years.
The game ended 5:2 to the good guys, leaving their opponents searching for ways to respond.
Since that game, Giants have managed wins by a single goal, both on the road in the league, whilst in the cup, they have secured a semi-final berth, but lost a game and were taken to OT, twice in 5 games total.
This suggests that whilst Giants are also finding ways, they are not impervious to defeat nor having it too easy.
Against last season, their record isn’t too dissimilar, even gaining more points in the cup, with a game to spare.
The main takeaways, are how close their games have been and despite a prolific scoring record from star player JJ Piccinich (20 pts all competitions), they are yet to hit that well known stride.
The same could be said for the Devils, who are also managing to churn out wins, making the most of their games, in a very good place for points gathered.
They are also a team that has an aura of they are yet to actually get going. This is all dress rehearsal.
Amongst all the colliding stats and figures that can easily highlight why these two teams are the best right now (although, not too distantly to the likes of Flames, as an example), this is a key match up which might speak volumes for the points at the end of the season.
Scoring vs Goal Tending
Going into this match up, there are some good metrics where similarity is shared between the teams.
For instance, their top scorers are just 5 points apart, with MacDonald (15) having played against more varied competition with increased difficulty, compared to Piccinich (20 points).
Then, there is the prowess in net. Stoever of course, is on an 8 game winning streak, across both competitions and back stopped his team to a shutout win vs Steelers and a road win in regulation at Panthers.
If he is to get a rest, it might be earned due to the usage of late, but also, it might be at the wrong time, as he is hot and Giants are the third big club in a row his team will face in a space of 5 days.
If it is Stoever vs Kupsky in net, then it would be a tantalising battle of the goalies, as both after 3GP in the league boast close to a 1.00 GAA (Stoever) and for their SV%, Stoever holds 96%, whereas as Kupsky (1.38 GAA) holds just shy of 95%.
Also, in terms of shots faced, Kupsky just leads Stoever 79:77. Incredible, early season numbers.
As for the top lines, main highlight players aside, this is where strength of competition (league and cup) weighs in favour of the Giants.
They lead all ten teams for top lines in points (50) and points per player (p/p) with 16.67.
Devils meanwhile, are severely bolstered by MacDonald, at 7th overall with 33 points and 11p/p.
In both cases, if you shut down this particular line, it will dramatically impact their results on the night.
As far as goal scoring looks, Devils rank joint third currently, with Giants still the top ranked team with 21 goals across both competitions from their top line players.
When ranked by goals as a percentage of total points amongst their top line, Devils stand 2nd overall with 51.5%, behind Stars, whereas Giants sit 3rd with 42% – a whopping 9.5% gap between them, whilst Devils are only behind Stars by this metric of 1.8%.
Despite the Devils line being more goal orientated, Giants still command a huge lead and that chemistry which has won multiple championships (Piccinich – Conway – Goodwin), is still the best the league has seen.
For want of repeated rhetoric regarding recurring habits, the Devils are still thin for their main stays, especially for Olischefski, although he might be having a career best start as a Devil, they are no where near close enough to be that effective.
In terms of supplementary scoring, Devils fare slightly better than Giants, with their 2nd line unit (Barrow – Kontos – Brandt) at 5th overall for 2nd line rankings, with 9.3p/p and 28 combined points. Very similar to their top line.
Giants meanwhile ranked 10th with 6.67p/p from 20 points.
Interestingly, their goals to points percentage is also 40%, with the Devils’ 2nd line at 35.7%. So, just as productive, but less efficient to convert to goals.
It shows that whilst both teams are indeed dangerous and when on a heater, ever more so. For Devils, their risk offsets at a higher rate, due to lack of secondary goal production, not necessarily offensive distribution.
So, perhaps there is a genuine argument, backed by results and data, that the Devils should be in the market for another forward, with a higher calibre than any they have added from last season.
What does the predictor say?
Another league game, another look at the official match predictor tool created over the season so far. To date, almost 300 games have been entered, league only.
This outcome is largely related to the home record Devils have enjoyed for 17 games, especially with their recent encounter not too long ago.
With that being known, it looks pretty legit, however a game day can be anything but accurately predicted. So far, 3 out of 4 have been correct with near accurate scoring outcomes, so it looks to be holding up pretty well.
Statmin
Episode 89 of the EIHL Face-Off Podcast is now live and uploaded, ready to go; check it here on Spotify; https://open.spotify.com/show/0sGE0LTlxGGKa7ksI4uL89
Also, here on Apple; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eihl-face-off/id1735994865
Furthermore, joining us on the pod this week was Elite Ice App creator, Jamie Rees, so if you haven’t downloaded the app yet, please do!
You can visit here for your own play store; https://eliteice.app/
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