BLAZE bounced back from their opening-day thrashing at Fife Flyers in the Elite League by defeating the Scottish outfit 4-1 at the Skydome on Sunday night.
Chuck Weber’s side got their campaign off to the worst possible start on Saturday night after finding themselves on the recieving end of a 6-0 defeat in Kirkcaldy.
But they put things right the following evening thanks to a 4-1 victory which began courtesy of an unassisted goal from Ashely Tait.
Former Flyers forward Ned Lukacevic then had a chance to double Blaze’s lead but he missed his penalty shot at in the 15th minute.
But two goals inside 102 seconds in the final period saw Blaze take a stranglehold of the game with Mike Quesnele (43) and Cale Tanaka (44) finding the target.
Flyers pulled a goal back through Michael Dorr with 13 minutes remaining but Neil Trimm ensured victory for Blaze in their home opener with a goal in the 56th minutes.
The hosts did have goaltender Brian Stewart to thanks after last season’s player of the year pulled of 39 saves to be named man of the match.
“You are always happier when you win – but especially when you win the right way,” said Weber.
“For the most part I thought we controlled the pace of play. There were goals from all three lines and you always want some balanced scoring.
“We had a big five-on-three penalty kill in the first period and those momentum-changers can go a long way. We managed to take advantage of that.
“Even when they pulled a goal back I liked the energy on the bench and we went right after it.
“We killed all five of their powerplays after they had gone 2/4 (on Saturday) and we managed to get one (powerplay goal) through too. We put some building blocks in place.”
