Referee Simon Kirkham

Devils' Dave Dismissed

ANGRY Dave Whistle was dismissed from the bench as Thomson Cardiff Devils crashed to a humiliating defeat at Coventry Blaze. It now looks certain Coventry will win the Challenge Cup even though they travel to Wales for next Thursday's second leg with a five-goal advantage. A record Skydome attendance of 2,770 watched Blaze take a stranglehold on the final.

Cardiff were second best all evening and head coach Whistle was left fuming with his team and officiating. Referee Simon Kirkham took exception to his comments after an incident involving Jon Cullen and threw Whistle out of the game on a match penalty. There were only 48 seconds left when Whistle clashed with Kirkham, telling him what he thought after Cullen's head was pushed into the glass.

"Jon Cullen is one of the cleanest players in the League and his face was being pushed into the glass," said Whistle. "Those penalty calls are not being made and it's happening far too often. I told the referee what I thought and he made his call against me. But, no matter how I feel about that, the referee is not to blame for our defeat. Coventry are a good side and we gave them the chance to play. We have to be tougher, we have to stand up to Coventry as we do against every other team in the league, of we meet in the play-offs. We have so much more confidence against everybody else. Maybe Cuggers (Jason Cugnet) can lead the way and everybody will follow. We conceded some poor goals tonight, but it wasn't down to any one player - the whole team must take their share of the blame."

Final score: Coventry Blaze 6 - Cardiff Devils 1

Cardiff Devils have now played Coventry nine times this season - and lost eight of them. But the teams don't meet again in the League and Coventry are only two points ahead of the Devils at the top with eight games each left.

Match stats from Challenge Cup final first leg:
Period scores: 2-1; 3-0 (5-1); 1-0 (6-1).
Scorers:
Coventry: Ashley Tait 1+2, Chris McNamara 1+2, Joel Poirier 1+2, Adam Calder 1+0, Tom Watkins 1+0, Wade Belak 1+0, Graham Schlender 0+1, Dan Carlson 0+1.
Cardiff Devils: Rob Davison 1+0, Warren Tait 0+1.
Penalties in minutes: Coventry 8+4+2=14; Cardiff 2+18+27=47.
Shots on goal: Coventry 14+11+11=36; Cardiff 12+13+9=34.
Attendance: 2,770.