Sport

Devils made to pay penalty

THE Belfast Giants capitalised on the poor discipline of the Cardiff Devils to edged a 3-2 victory in the first of the weekend's doubleheader when Mike Kompon somehow smuggled the puck over the line for the game-winning powerplay goal with just 23.2 seconds left in the game.

For long stretches the home team didn't look like they could pull the win out of the bag but they dug deep in the final 20 minutes with two big goals to clinch two vital points.

Coach Steve Thornton once again juggled his offensive lines, looking for the right chemistry but it was clearly absent in the first period as the Giants struggled to find any momentum in front of the Devils goal.

The Welsh side were clearly bigger and more physical and one-on-one battles were being lost and at 9:39 from a lengthy shift of pressure around the Giants net, the puck eventually broke to Tyson Marsh who was all alone in the slot and his effort beat goalie Stephen Murphy.

As the first period closed it seemed the only way the Devils could lose was to beat themselves and, on the same play, Joey Haddad took two different penalties giving the Giants a four-minute powerplay that spilled over into the second period.

That became a two-man advantage when Carl Hudson picked up a penalty 36 seconds after the restart and finally the Giants managed to score when Mike Kompon roofed the puck past Ben Bowns at 22:27.

It was now the turn of the home side to exert some pressure and by raising the tempo, they seized control but couldn't find a second goal.

Instead they got hit with the sucker punch at 36:10. It was a poor penalty call on defenceman Davy Phillips who was called for shoving his opponent after having his stick wrestle from his grasp.

The penalty should have gone the other way but instead Jake Morissette restored the Devils lead.

The Giants had a chance to level the game again with yet another 5-on-3 opportunity late in the period but didn't.

It was left to Lloyd, Adam Keefe and Mark Garside to provide the shift of the game as they controlled the puck in

the Devils defensive zone, hit their defencemen hard and took the puck to the net and it was Garside who got credit for the tying goal at 47:02.

Murphy came up with a couple of huge saves to keep the game in the balance and when the lumbering Doug Clarkson took a tripping call late on, it was Kompon who poked the puck into the net after a mad scramble in front of Bowns.