Coventry Blaze 6 Hull Stingrays 3

Special teams were dominant as no fewer than six of the ten goals were scored on the powerplay with Blaze skating away strongly in the end to snap a 3-3 tie with three goals in the final eleven minutes.

Star of the show was forward Owen Fussey with a treble while Matic Kralj assisted on four.

The home side took the lead with Fussey’s first of the night at 12.58 on the powerplay only for Frantisek Bakrlik to restore equality at 14.22 powerplay.

It was Stingrays ahead again on the powerplay at 29.40 with Jereme Tendler counting before Blaze levelled through the efforts of Shea Guthrie at 32.04.

Powerplay goals were traded early in the third session as Luke Fulgum  for Blaze at 41.21 and Matt Davies for Stingrays at 45.59 left the score at 3-3. Blaze then hit the gas hard and killed off their visitors with a quick double from Fussey at 49.46 and then Aaron Nell only 41 seconds later. Fussey put the icing on his and his teams’ cake by completing his hat trick on the powerplay at 58.20 to keep Blaze’s 100% record intact at this very early stage of the season.

Period Scores: 1-1, 1-1, 4-1
Penalty Mins: Cov 23 – Hul 25
Powerplay: Cov 3/7 – Hul 3/6
Shots On: Peter Hirsch 34 – Christian Boucher 38

Referee: James Ashton