Blaze ease past Flyers for second win of the weekend
Paul Thompson’s stern words to the Coventry Blaze midweek have clearly had some effect, with the Midlands side scoring thirteen goals over their two wins this weekend. After a crushing 8-2 victory in Hull on Friday, the side returned home to the Skydome and defeated the Fife Flyers 5-1 in a comfortable win.
After the previous weekend, nothing more than a confident performance with a positive result was going to satisfy the home support. Despite the poor weather conditions, nearly 2000 people turned up for the game. The first period was pretty even between the two sides; the Blaze arguably had more of the possession but squandered their chances. Fife generated nearly as many chances with a smaller amount of time on the puck and managed to get themselves into the lead as former Newcastle Viper Toms Hartmanis opened the scoring. Coventry levelled late on in the first period as Russ Cowley benefited from some neat play between Robert Farmer and Owen Fussey to scramble the puck home from close range.
The Blaze dialled it up a notch in the second period and dominated the play, if not the scoreline. They did take the lead 33 minutes in as the Flyers failed to do what most teams had effectively done all season; block Jonathan Weaver on the powerplay. The Blaze captain showed that if given a shooting lane, he will score as he rippled the back of the net with a blue line shot. Instead of splitting the shots, Coventry nearly doubled Fife’s shot count in the second period, highlighting their dominance.
It was in the 3rd period where Coventry pressed home their advantage, scoring three times to close out the win. Greg Owen showed some good skills to make it 3-1 before Fussey would add two goals for himself, both supplied by Shea Guthrie. Uniting those two players has proved to be fruitful for the Blaze as Fussey scored five goals over the two games. Another welcome bonus for the Blaze was the special teams play, scoring two powerplay goals and not conceding any when short-handed. They were also very good at staying out of the box, something which the Flyers could certainly improve.
The standard of opposition was not that of previous weeks but the Flyers came into the Skydome not short of confidence with some good results behind them, including a win over the Blaze. On the night they were second best and the right team won. The four point weekend will go some way to helping ensure the Blaze now achieve that vital 4th spot in the league and advantage for the playoff rounds.
