COVENTRY Blaze ended the Elite League regular season with a 4-2 win against Cardiff Devils ahead of a highly-anticipated play-off clash between the two sides this weekend.
Tyler Kirkup scored twice in the third period after JD Dudek and Alex Forbes struck in the second period to secure a comfortable win at the Skydome Arena.
And Blaze will face the fourth-placed Devils again in the end of season play-off quarter-finals with the first leg at the Skydome on Saturday, April 8 and the second leg in Cardiff on Sunday, April 9.
Blaze head coach Danny Stewart said: “We’ve got to put in the same performance [in the play-off game], these aggregate games are tricky, you’ve got to be at your best.
“The good thing for us is that all of our attention was on Cardiff this week, we did a lot of preparation and that can just carry over to next week.
“It’s just about chipping away at some additional things and things we’ve seen from this game and just cleaning up a few areas.”
Blaze were forced to kill two penalties in the opening period which ended goalless before Dudek broke the deadlock at 32.54 on the powerplay as he skated almost the length of the ice to score.
And Coventry doubled their lead at 34.04 when Forbes’ shot from the blue line went through Devils keeper and GB international Ben Bowns.
The home side sealed the win when Kirkup struck at 43.42 and 54.03 the second of which came with Blaze short-handed.
Devils showed spirit to score two late consolation goals through Cole Sanford at 58.36 and Chad Pietroniro at 59.08 but were unable to prevent Blaze from claiming a third successive win.
Blaze host Devils in the first leg of their quarter-final at the Skydome on Saturday, April 8 with the face-off at 7pm with the second leg at Ice Arena Wales on Sunday, April 9 with the face-off at 6pm.
