Early Stingrays lead wiped out as Cardiff storm back

Cardiff outshot the visitors 26-2 in the first period but it was Hull who went into the interval ahead after Konstantin Kalmikov pounced to score a shorthanded goal at 5.00.

That was how it stayed until Devils' player-coach Gerad Adams levelled for his team at 35.58. The title contenders edged ahead less than two minutes later when Jon Pelle found a way past Christian Boucher on the powerplay.

Scott Matzka made it a two-goal game five minutes into the third when shorthanded, before Pelle added a fourth.

Player-coach Sylvain Cloutier, whose side were beaten 12-0 on their previous visit to Cardiff, said: "It has been a long day for us - at one stage we didn't even think the game would be on - and we knew they would come out hard but we weathered the storm.

"I thought the guys did a decent job. We responded to what happened here last time and we matched their intensity, it was a physical game.

"We had to kill a lot of penalties so we couldn't really get going. We are the least penalised team in the league so it was frustrating.

"But Cardiff are a good team, we gave it our best shot against the hottest team in the Elite League right now who showed why they are on a 13-game winning streak."