Cardiff Devils opened their pre-season campaign with 8-5 and 4-1 wins against the Odense Bulldogs at the Vindico Arena.

The Bulldogs opened the scoring just four minutes into the opening game on Saturday night when a shot from the point was redirected by Kristian Jensen to beat Ben Bowns.

The Devils were back in it almost immediately though when a lovely pass by Riley Brandt found Brandon Estes and he equalised against his former team.

Ryan Barrow gave the Devils the lead halfway through the period before being pegged back again, as Odense equalised through Jensen again.

That wasn’t the end of the goals though, as moments before the buzzer Riley Brandt tipped a Nick Welsh shot into the net to give the Devils a lead at the end of the first.

The Devils started the second period quickly with Joey Martin giving them a two-goal lead, followed by a first pre-season goal for playoff hero Nolan Yaremko.

Maxime Trepanier then scored to cut the Devils lead again with a quick backhanded finish, as tempers began to flare.

Tom Caron scored his first as a Devil and Riley Brandt bagged a second goal before, but Odense once again kept themselves within touching distance, as Radim Piroutek beat Ben Bowns to leave the score at 7-4 at the end of the period.

The third was quieter on the goal front but filled with incident as the two teams saw multiple players ejected from the game.

Tempers spilled over on three occasions including one in which Riley Brandt, Evan Mosey, Ross Macdaugall and Martin Larsen were all escorted to the locker room.

Amidst all the fights, Odense did score through Mathias Mogensen to put the Bulldogs within two, but Joey Martin iced the game with a lovely finish to give him his second of the night, and the Devils their eighth.

The Devils saw out the final few minutes of the game and celebrated a win to open their pre-season amid a great atmosphere in the Vindico Arena.

The next day, the Devils completed their opening weekend of pre-season with a win against Odense, as they ran out 4-1 winners on Sunday night at the Vindico Arena.

They took the lead just after the five-minute mark as Evan Mosey beat Frederik Sogaard with a quick wrist shot into the top corner of the net.

As the game settled into a rhythm the Devils drew a penalty through Jimmy Oligny and headed onto the powerplay but gave up a number of opportunities while on the man advantage while unable to establish themselves in the zone.

Eventually that pressure told as Odense scored a shorthanded equaliser through Markus Jensen, who beat Ben Bowns on a breakaway with a smart finish.

As was the case yesterday though, it didn’t take the Devils long to re-establish their lead, as Joey Martin scored his third of the weekend just 20 seconds later after a great feed from Kristoff Kontos.

The second period was much quieter as both teams tried to establish themselves, and initially both had periods of possession but couldn’t make it count.

That was until the Devils broke out on an odd-man rush, and Brandon Estes excellently slotted in his second of the weekend, and the Devils third of the night.

Things continued in the same form after the break as both teams prepared for a final sprint, but the Devils saw off Bulldogs pressure to take the game to the final minutes with a two-goal lead.

Odense pulled their netminder as they chased a second goal, but Panu Mieho scored his first as a Devil into the empty net.

In a lovely moment to end the game, netminder Harry Thomas got time in goal, and he was met with thunderous applause from fans as he registered his first game with the Devils. All in all, the Devils iced five Cardiff born players on a feel-good night for Welsh hockey.

After the incident packed game of Saturday, the two teams enjoyed a calmer night on Sunday as the Devils made it two wins in two to start their 2026/27 pre-season.

Image Credit: James Assinder

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