Cloud 9 for Blaze with Storming win

THE Genting Casino Coventry Blaze hammered the Manchester Storm 9-0 in the Viaplay Elite League at Skydome Arena on Sunday night.

Colton Yellow Horn registered a hat-trick and was awarded the man of the match to move up to fourth in the Elite League stats for goals (14) and fifth for points (30).

Yellow Horn opened the scoring at 10.17 before Radek Vesely registered the first of two for him at 12.42 on the powerplay.

The first period was halted with 38 seconds remaining and the players sent to the dressing room early after a piece of the plexiglass popped out of its stanchion.

When the players returned to the ice to finish the first period before switching ends for the second, Yellow Horn beat the clock to give the Blaze an official 3-0 lead after the first period, scoring with nine seconds of the 38 left.

Tensions began to rise at 32.56 as Blaze’s Brady Norrish clashed with Dallas Ehrhardt with each player receiving two minutes for roughing.

Great Britain international David Clements scored his fourth of the regular season to make it 4-0 at 35.56 and then Player of the Month for November Kim Tallberg struck for 5-0 on the powerplay at 39.14.

With 32 seconds left in the second, Mitch Cook scored to finish a period of dominance for the Blaze who took a 6-0 into the third.

Vesely’s second came at 46.33 before Brady Norrish registered Coventry’s third powerplay goal of the game at 53.24.

Yellow Horn completed his hat-trick at 56.49 with Johnny Curran grabbing his third assist.

With the convincing victory, Blaze held on to second place in the standings and sit eight points behind leaders Guildford Flames.

Head coach Danny Stewart said: “It was an unbelievable performance from start to finish.

“We played really well in all areas and every aspect of our game was good.”