COVENTRY Blaze continued their excellent start to the season with a 5-3 Challenge Cup victory over Cardiff Devils at the Skydome Arena.
Colton Yellow Horn opened the scoring on 12 minutes when he beat Great Britain International Ben Bowns with a right angle shot at his near post.
Blaze were dealt a significant blow at 17.48 when number-one goalie Paavo Holsa was forced to leave the game and was replaced by Brit Jordan Hedley.
And Hedley was beaten by Jake Coughler via an unfortunate bounce within seconds of entering the ice, but the GB back up quickly settled to give Blaze a solid foundation to build on their lead.
Radek Veselý pounced on a rebound from a Kim Tallberg shot to put the Blaze 2-1 up at 21.29, before Peyton Frantti was able to find Bowns’ top corner from the slot at 29.24 to make it 3-1.
And Marly Quince made it four at 39.16 with a highlight reel deke goal with the primary assist going to Yellow Horn for his second point of the night.
The Devils fought back strongly in the third period and scored two quickfire goals through Brodie Reid at 49.39 and Mark Richardson at 52.03 to reduce the deficit to a single goal.
Blaze finally sealed the win when Jack Billings bagged his third point of the night by scoring into an empty net with 1.19 left on the clock after Browns was pulled by the Devils for an extra skater.
On the final buzzer, Quince and Devils’ Joey Martin were handed penalties for roughing as the Coventry crowd celebrated a fifth Challenge Cup point from six available so far.
Blaze are next in action against the Devils on Saturday, September 1 in another Challenge Cup fixture with the face-off at 7pm at the Cardiff Ice Arena.
And Coventry return to Elite League action against Sheffield Steelers on Sunday, October 2 with the face-off at 5.30pm at the Skydome Arena.
