COVENTRY Blaze suffered a 7-4 defeat against recently-crowned champions Belfast Giants in midweek.
Blaze matched Belfast for much of the contest at the SSE Arena only for the Giants to show their champion quality with a third period blitz.
The result means Coventry sit seventh in the Elite League standings. Blaze must win both of their remaining regular season games to have any chance of improving their position in the table ahead of the play-offs.
Blaze killed an early penalty before Coventry received a four-minute penalty with Belfast’s Reid Irwin penalised for holding and abuse of officials.
The visitors could not convert on the man advantage but did open the scoring soon after at 11.57 when Alessio Luciani found the net.
Belfast responded late in the first period at 16.58 as Jake Gaudet levelled the scores from Karl Boudrais’ assist.
And the Giants took the lead on the powerplay at 19.23 as Scott Conway finished Mike Lee’s feed with 37 seconds remaining in the first period after Blaze’s Grayson Constable committed a boarding offence.
Belfast extended their lead at 25.25 when Nicolas Guay beat Mat Robson in the Blaze net from Josh Roach’s assist.
However, Coventry hit back at 28.07 with a short-handed goal as Jack Hopkins scored a well-taken goal after Mike Pelech forced a turnover.
Blaze suffered a blow immediately after the goal with Colton Saucerman forced to leave the ice injured following the play.
Belfast quickly restored their two-goal cushion at 32.58 courtesy of Carsen Twarynski while Belfast saw Gaudet penalised soon after for cross-checking as Blaze’s Connor Russell dropped the gloves with Boudrais.
Coventry capitalised on the resulting powerplay as Constable fired past Giants netminder Jake Kupsky at 35.36 to close the gap to a single goal heading into the third period.
The Giants struck again on the powerplay at 50.04 when David Goodwin converted from Mike Lee and Ryan Smith with Hopkins in the box for Blaze.
And Belfast took control of the game at 51.30 as Conway scored his second of the match with time running out for the visitors.
Conway completed his hat-trick at 54.08 with a goal on the powerplay as Lee recorded his third assist of the match.
Blaze scored a late consolation at 59.27 when Luciani found the net to score his second of the game with just 33 seconds left to play.
Coventry travel to Cardiff Devils in their penultimate game of the regular season on Saturday, April 4 with the face-off at 7pm at the Vindico Arena.
Blaze then host Belfast in their final fixture of the regular season on Sunday, April 5 with the face-off at 5.30pm at the Skydome Arena.
