Cardiff Devils 5-2 Excel Hull Stingrays
The Excel Hull Stingrays were beaten 5-2 by the Cardiff Devils as both sides opened their Challenge Cup campaigns with an aggressive, rough-and-tumble meeting which saw several skirmishes break out. The game was eventually forced to end 23 seconds from the final buzzer after an unsavory incident involving the Stingrays Adam Knight and Cardiff's Brad Voth.
Knight fought Voth early on, as well as with just 23 seconds remaining, in a game that also saw Stingrays Matt Reynolds, Lee Esders and Stephen Burns involved in the rough stuff.
The Devils, who lost last night against the Stingrays after opening up a two goal lead in the first, again took a decent lead into the final two periods, with goals from Phil Hill, Wes Jarvis and Jay Latulippe giving them a 3-0 first period lead.
The Rays obligatory comeback followed in the second as Konstantin Kalmikov shot to the top of the league's goalscoring charts with his fourth and fifth of the season to pull the Devils lead back to one.
That is as close as it would get for the Stingrays, however, as Latulippe and Jarvis added their second goals of the night to seal the Devils 5-2 win and two points towards their Challenge Cup standing.
Reports suggest that it was an exciting, uptempo match up that will no doubt be overshadowed by the events at the end of the game, which saw the referee bring an end to proceedings with 23 seconds still left on the clock and with 284 penalty minutes dished out in total.
UPDATE: Further reports are saying that Voth and Knight both recieved two match penalties for Travesty of Game, meaning that the Elite League will automatically investigate the incident and that both players recieve two game bans.
PIM: 181-103
SOG: 50-22
