For the second night in a row, the Devils skated to victory over the Coventry Blaze to make it a 4 point weekend for the first place Devils.
A dominating first period saw the Devils outshoot their opponents 16 to 9 and score twice to lead 2-0 after 20 minutes of play. The first goal came from Captain Jake Morissette on the powerplay at 8:11 with Joey Martin and Bryce Reddick getting the assists. Then at 16:17, Patrick Asselin took a pass from Sean Bentivoglio to score past Kevin Nastiuk and double the Devils lead, which they took with them into the first intermission.
The Blaze pulled one back when Ryan Dingle set up Marc-Olivier Vallerand just over 3 minutes into the second period. At the 30:00 minute mark exactly the game was tied when Dingle scored to make it 2-2 with Danick Paquette and Brett Robinson getting the assists on the tying goal.
The teams traded powerplay chances in the first half of the final period, but neither team could break the deadlock. Then with Vallerand in the box for tripping the Devils powerplay went to work with chance after chance, only to be turned away by Nastiuk in net for the Blaze. But with the powerplay barely expired, and the Blaze player just getting back into the play, Joey Martin and Layne Ulmer set up Morissette in front of the goal for his 2nd goal of the game at 50:12 to give the Devils the 3-2 lead.
A late penalty taken by Patrick Asselin gave the Blaze a vital powerplay with 4 minutes to play but the Devils penalty-killing unit was perfect on the night led by some monster saves from Ben Bowns to secure the win. Jake Morissette led the Devils with 2 goals, while Joey Martin picked up 2 assists and Bowns made 28 saves for the win.
An impressive 4-point weekend for the Devils who stay on top of the Elite League standings but for the Blaze, they finish the weekend empty handed and slump into 9th place.
Photo: Scott Wiggins
