If you are looking for sporting success stories in Cardiff, you can’t get much greater than the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team and one player in particular, step forward Jon Pelle.
If you have heard the show, you will know all about the Cardiff Devils from the great coverage provided by our man, Simon Williams. The Devils have enjoyed a great season to date, including a run of 22 matches undefeated earlier in the campaign.
At the heart of their success has been the goalscoring form of 24 year-old Pelle. The New Yorker has been in scintillating form during 2010-11 and last night he clocked up his 50th goal to join an elite group of players to have achieved such an honour in UK ice hockey.
The high scoring form should come as no surprise. Pelle joined the Devils from Rapid City Rush in the American Central Hockey League ahead of this season, where he notched 59 goals in 53 matches in the last campaign.
Albeit that ice hockey game is quite a high scoring game (compared to a sport like football, for example), the record of 50 goals is still a superb achievement. Pelle could well go down as one of the greatest players to have played for Cardiff Devils, indeed to have played in the UK, with his extraordinary knack of putting the puck into the net.
Pelle aside, the Devils are a great success story this season. The amazing 22-match unbeaten streak is a UK record and it’s being discussed with the good people of Guinness World Records as to whether it may be a world record.
Like a lot of UK ice hockey teams, they have imported players from North America, but the Devils also have their fair share of locally produced players. Goaltenders Stevie Lyle and Joseph Myers, defenceman Alex Symonds and forwards Sam Smith and Phil Hill all originate from Cardiff which shows that the club are keen to bring in good local talent.
And as the Devils become ever more successful, the more youngsters want to play ice hockey and thus making the development of players for the future a lot easier for the club. It’s a magnificent sport to be involved in and the Cardiff Devils are doing all the right things.
Look out for the Devils in the play-offs in the next few weeks. It’s been a successful campaign so far, but it would be lovely to have some silverware to polish to end the season on a high.
Author: Paul Harper
0 comments:
Post a Comment