Ice Hockey: Devils work brings vital away win for the Capitals

The former Washington Capitals draft pick claimed the glory strike after 28 minutes in the 1-0 win over Cardiff Devils following a move involving Mark Garside.

It was Cody Rudkowsky's first shut-out of the season and the club's first victory at Cardiff this season.

Last night's win also closed the gap between Capitals and fourth-placed Devils to six points and the Scots have two games in hand.

And it has given the Murrayfield men new belief as Devils have the best home record in the league.

The only downside from a superb three-point weekend was Capitals' inability to score on their power play.

They had nine opportunities at Cardiff and eight in Saturday's 4-3 overtime defeat by Elite League pacesetters Coventry Blaze at Murrayfield. Doug Christiansen, Capitals' director of hockey, revealed that Devils outshot Capitals 38-26 and he praised his under-strength side, saying: "This was a brilliant result for us."

It was all the more noteworthy as Capitals left at 7.30am yesterday morning and only arrived at the Principality rink at 4pm.

Christiansen refuses to look at the table, preferring to concentrate on the next game which is against Newcastle at Whitley Bay on Saturday. Vipers visit Murrayfield on Sunday in the return.

Currently, the Tyneside team are in sixth place in the eight-strong table with 36 points from 42 games. Edinburgh, who are fifth, have 39 from 40 games so it is another pivotal weekend.

Christiansen admitted: "It was tense (at Cardiff). Any time you go one goal ahead for as long as we were makes it tense.

"We were hanging on and hanging on but the guys did a very good job in keeping Devils at bay.

"We also had other chances to score but we scored as many as we had to to take the points and that's what matters."

He added: "We take one game at a time. We have a massive weekend coming up against Newcastle who are looking to turn their season around." Christiansen said the Cardiff success was a team effort. "Cody (Rudkowsky) earned his first shut out of the season," he said.

"Dan Welch blocked shots all night and Mark Smith had a great game. Kyle Horne hurt himself early on but played on.

"Everybody played their part. Jordan Steel got some shifts but we kept our veteran players on the ice as much as we could as this was a really tight game.

"They tried to play physically, as they do, but we kept them at bay and absorbed the pressure which inevitably came."

The giant American playcaller added: "Earning three points out of a possible four at the weekend is really positive and we were the better team on Saturday night against Coventry. We controlled much of the game against the long-time league leaders but the one thing that disappoints is that we were 0-17 on power play over the two games.

"We were 0-9 at Cardiff and 0-8 against Coventry and we have too many great offensive players not be getting it to work so we'll be working on that in training this week to get it working."

On Saturday, the 730 fans witnessed a real thriller at the Riversdale rink as Capitals stormed to a 2-0 lead.

Mark Garside was set up by Fussey and Simon Lambert in the fifth minute and the East Kilbride-born player made no mistake after a sustained period of home pressure.

And Blaze netminder Peter Hirsch had no chance with Capitals second which was scored short-handed.

Jeff Hutchins provided the finishing touch after being fed by Welch in a breakaway. The move was initiated deep in Capitals end zone by Horne. Time 14min 18sec.

Greg Owen opened his and Coventry's account two minutes later. Capitals pushed the self-destruct button by failing to clear the puck and Owen made no mistake as Rudkowsky was exposed and he dumped the rubber into the top of the net.

And the scoreline was level in the 28th minute when Owen beat Rudkowsky at the near post with Capitals rearguard at sixes and sevens.

In the high-tempo game, Hirsch had to be at his best to deny the eager home side with at least two world-class saves when Capitals had a five-on-three power play opportunity for around a minute.

They failed to beat the in-form netminder despite heavy pressure and it looked all over when Luke Fulghum netted a third for Blaze with less than four minutes left.

Lambert had other ideas and he raised his arms to salute the fans after levelling the score at 3-3 with 30 seconds remaining after build-up play from busy Sean Perkins and Ben O'Connor.

The goal took the entertaining tussle into overtime but Owen silenced home fans with his game-winner 1min 18sec into the extra period.