Devils hope they will be celebrating tonight

Cardiff Devils head into the biggest game of their season tonight riding on a wave of confidence after their late comeback against Newcastle Vipers on the weekend.

The Devils play Nottingham Panthers in the second leg of the Challenge Cup final and they must battle back from two goals down, after a 4-2 first leg defeat.

But they are full of confidence after beating the Vipers 7-4 on Sunday, despite being 3-0 behind with 21 minutes to play.

Devils head coach Gerad Adams said: “The game on Sunday is going to be great for the confidence of my players heading into tonight’s match. You never want to be behind in hockey but it did give us some practice I suppose.

“It was really important for us to win because it showed we have the ability to do it. We had to be very patient. That’s what I told the players after the second period – just to keep it simple, play our game and be patient.”

Devils went into Sunday’s match on the back of three defeats, including the first leg reverse to Panthers but Adams thinks form goes out of the window for the cup final.

He said: “The cup final is its own separate entity. It’s just 60 minutes of hockey and we absolutely believe we can go there and win.

“If you have to turn a two-goal deficit around against any team then you want it to be Nottingham. They will have a big crowd in and if we get a couple of goals early on, the fans will turn on them. Then we have a chance of bringing the cup home.”

Devils forward Tylor Michel made a costly error in the first leg to let Panthers steal a vital fourth goal. But the Canadian has been in great form since and scored a sublime double against Vipers to spark the Devils’ turnaround.

He said: “They are just going in for me right now. I’m feeling really confident about my own game and it’s always nice to help out the team.

“We played well on Sunday. Even in the first period when we let-in three goals it was just unlucky rather than bad play. When we sat down in the breaks we just said ‘let’s do this’ and stuck at it. It’s given us lots of confidence for Tuesday.”

Michel, who is yet to sign a new deal for next season, also said he thinks Devils can return from Nottingham victorious. He said: “We have got a game plan and if we go there and execute it there’s a great chance we can go up there and take the Challenge Cup.”

Face-off tonight is 7.30pm at the National Ice Centre where Devils will be looking for their first piece of silverware since they won the same competition in 2006, when they turned around a three-goal deficit from the first leg to defeat Coventry Blaze.