Slow start costs Blaze once again
THE Genting Casino Coventry Blaze were beaten 6-3 in their opening Challenge Cup game at the Spectrum against the Guildford Flames on Sunday night.
Coventry travelled to Surrey without defenceman Dillon Eichstadt and forward David Broll, the import pair both sustaining injuries in the season’s early going.
As per the night before in a 4-1 defeat to the Fife Flyers at the Skydome, Blaze came out of the traps slow and found themselves 3-0 down within 17 minutes when head coach Danny Steward called a time-out.
Re-directing a T.J Foster shot, Cam Braes gave Flames the lead at 9.45 before Great
Britain International Ben Davies made it 2-0 on 10.54, the former Blaze player somehow firing home after being upended on his way to goal.
John Dunbar grabbed a third for the home side timed at 16.27, before the Blaze time-out was called.
Afterwards, Coventry responded well with associate Captain Luke Ferrara scoring on the powerplay at 17.18.
The second period was one littered with penalties. The Flames scored two on the powerplay through Jamie Crooks (28.40) and Brett Ferguson (32.54), split by a goal from Blaze’s Evan Bloodoff who capitalised on a rebound at 34.11 for a score of 5-2 after 40 minutes of play.
It was Bloodoff again on 45.56 who made it a 5-3 game on the man advantage but try as they might, Coventry couldn’t find another way past Travis Fullerton in the Guildford goal.
With Jamie Phillips pulled from the Blaze net for the extra skater, Joshua Waller scored into the empty cage at 58.36 to wrap up the scoring 6-3.
Head Coach Danny Stewart said: “It was a really bad first period. For consecutive games we’ve spotted teams momentum and goals. I thought in the second we were chasing the game a bit and we ran into penalty trouble.
“Our third was really good and indicative of how we want to play but you can’t turn up for one or two periods and expect to win, especially on the road.”