Cardiff Devils 7 Sheffield Steelers 3 - Devils take pole position with big win

The Devils are now in pole position, by just a point but with three games in hand on the Steelers who have five matches left.

It remains to be seen how much of a blow to their confidence last night’s defeat will have on the Steelers, although they have shown their capacity for winning at the venue previously this season when deservedly beating the Devils 5-4 back in January.

But there was unlikely to be a repeat of those heroics after Aaron Fox’s team went in at the first break trailing 4-2.

Stephen Dixon got the hosts on the board inside three minutes, with Joey Haddad doubling the advantage at 5.46.

The Steelers were able to halve the deficit in the 13th minute through defenceman David Phillips, although it wasn’t long beffore the Devils restored their two-goal cushion when Blair Riley struck at 14.53.

Again the Steelers responded, this time more swiftly when Anthony DeLuca made it 3-2 just 11 seconds later, but Masi Marjamaki’s strike 37 seconds before the buzzer proved to be a crucial moment.

Joey Martin made it 5-2 with the only goal of the second period at 24.03 and any hopes the Steelers may have had of a third-period comeback were ended when Evan Mosey struck at 45.24.

Riley’s second of the night made it 7-2 with just over 10 minutes remaining, the Steelers salvaging some pride with a late consolation effort from Lucas Sandstrom.