Flames took an early lead on the road, but were unable to follow up before Cardiff Devils scored 4 in reply to send Surrey’s team away on the back of a 4-1 defeat in the final Challenge Cup group round fixture.
A little over 5 minutes in Josh Waller opened the scoring against his former team, but a Reid Duke reply inside the back half of the set levelled at a goal each.
Seconds from the game’s midway point, Devils took their first lead of the contest through Kohen Olischefski. They extended their advantage to a pair with a powerplay conversion inside the last 5 minutes thanks to Ryan Barrow. A late 5 on 3 powerplay for the visitors couldn’t cut into the deficit before a Flames penalty cut the manpower differential to 4 on 3 with a short stretch carrying over into the 3rd without changing the scoreline until a last minute empty netter from Josh Batch to close out the evening.
Jake Kupsky made 26 saves on 29 shots against Cardiff's Mac Carruth who went 23 for 24.
“Not the way we had hoped to be closing out the weekend as we head into Wednesday’s home game against Nottingham Panthers,” admitted Paul Dixon.
“It’s a struggle right now, particularly offensively, and guys are going to have to work their way out of that. They are working hard overall so it is not an effort item or a lack of concern for success, but everyone is going to need to find a way to get a little more from each bit of effort.”
“We are in a pit for sure, but there is no time to feel sorry for ourselves so we have to get up off the mat now and get back in there.”
“It is a short week of training ahead of the next one but we will do what we can to be ready for Panthers on Wednesday night.”
