COVENTRY Blaze responded to their first defeat of the Elite League season in style with a four-point weekend courtesy of wins against Glasgow Clan and Manchester Storm.
Blaze won 5-4 via penalty shots in a dramatic sudden death shootout at Glasgow before Kim Tallberg’s hat-trick secured victory by the same scoreline against Manchester Storm.
The results mean Blaze sit second in the Elite League table, just one point behind leaders Guildford Flames with a game in-hand.
Blaze welcomed back number-one goalie Paavo Holsa from injury but were again without defenceman Tanner Lishchynsky for the game against Glasgow at Braehead Arena.
The game remained scoreless at the end of an even first period before Blaze took the lead at 23.51 through defenceman Brady Norrish on the powerplay.
However, Coventry’s lead was short lived as Nolan LaPorte equalised just 12 seconds later with the assist by Mathieu Roy being the highlight of the play.
Tallberg restored Blaze’s lead at 41.10 before Glasgow pulled clear in the third period as LaPorte registered his second at 45.56 on the powerplay and Brit Jordan Cownie put the home side ahead at 49.52.
And Roy then bagged his second point of the night by scoring Clan’s second powerplay goal at 54.15 with Coventry seemingly dead and buried.
However, Danny Stewart’s side fought back as Ross Venus struck at 56.14 before Jack Billings levelled the game at 57.55 as Blaze scored twice in the final five minutes to take the game to overtime.
No goals were scored in the five-minute overtime period as former Clan man Colton Yellow Horn and Billings scored for Blaze in the first five shots of the shootout, matched by LaPorte and Cownie successfully converting for Clan.
Both goalies then made continuous saves until the eighth round of the shootout when Yellow Horn found the winner to send the Blaze home victorious.
And Coventry won by the same scoreline against the Storm to earn a hard-fought victory at the Skydome Arena.
Canadian forward Johnny Curran opened the scoring with a smart move to beat Hayden Lavigne in the Storm goal at 15.07 but Coventry’s joy was short lived as they ran into penalty trouble.
On their first two powerplay chances, Ryan Barrow converted for the Storm at 18.32 and 19.57 to give the away side a narrow lead after the first period.
Tallberg’s first goal came at 24.25 to tie things up, before Radek Vesely made it 3-2 on the powerplay at 27.12.
Blaze let the lead slip again, though, with Scott Simmonds (32.29) and new Storm signing Anthony DeLuca (38.06) scoring their third and fourth powerplay goals of the night.
However, the home side were not to be deterred as man of the match Tallberg came up with the game-tying and winning goal at 44.44 and then 56.41.
Blaze Head Coach Stewart said: “I thought we carried the play five-on-five. We put ourselves in a tough spot and we had to battle for that one.”
Blaze are back in action against Guildford Flames on Wednesday, October 12 at the Skydome Arena with the face-off at 7.30pm in a battle for top spot in their Challenge Cup group.
