02 Feb 2025, 17:30 | Regular season | SkyDome Arena |
Coventry Blaze | 5-2 | Fife Flyers |
Periods: Shots: | 1-1 (15-10) | 1-1 (10-11) | 3-0 (17-2) | Total: 42-23 |
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Referees: #50 James Ions, #52 Stephen Matthews  |  Spectators: 1771 |
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Goals and assists
Coventry Blaze moved backed into fifth in the Elite League standings
with a 5-2 win over Fife Flyers, although the basement side pushed them
until the very end.
"I think we knew if we just stuck to our game
plan that we’d give ourselves a good chance to win the game. It was
important we didn’t get discouraged with the score. We were creating
chances but were still tied, so it was just about sticking with it and
trusting ourselves," said Brandon Alderson, who had two assists in the
game. "Our coach switched up the lines today, and sometimes that’s an
adjustment for the players, but team chemistry is huge. I thought all of
our lines played well tonight, and a matter of seconds can make a
difference between scoring or not."
Morten Jurgens put the home
side ahead one second short of the ten-minute mark, but the Flyers were
to level up before the period was out off a Tyler Heidt shot form the
point.
Alessio Luciani put the Blaze back ahead 4:27 into period
two off a Nick Seitz pass across the slot, but a moment of magic from
Michael City, pulling the puck between his legs and finishing past Mat
Robson, tied the game again some four minutes later. Both sides had
powerplay chances before the period was out, but ended the period all
square.
The Blaze were on top to start period three, and
eventually did take the lead again - Chase Gresock the scorer with just
over 12 minutes to play. Alexander Kuqali added another 35 seconds later
to give the home side some breathing space, but Fife ocntinued to come
and pulled Owen with two minutes to go. Gresock fired into the empty net
with 43 seconds remaining to wrap up the game.
The Blaze's win
came after two defeats already this week. "We’ve been in games for the
most part but recently had some slip away. We saw this as a must-win
game," added Alderson. "Despite Fife being last in the standings,
they’re a tought team to play against so it was a big game and it gives
us some confidence going into the next games. At this point of the
season, every game is going to be important, you see how tight the
standings are."