COVENTRY Blaze have it all to do in the second leg of their Challenge Cup tie against Guildford Flames after Blaze were beaten 5-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final clash.
Blaze made the trip to Guildford’s Spectrum Arena hoping to upstage the Elite League leaders but fell behind to Turner Ripplinger’s strike at 7.55 before Sam Marklund made it two-nil at 15.27.
And Blaze were denied several times by Guildford netminder Eamon McAdam who was fine form between the pipes.
Guildford’s Peter Crinella took the game out of Blaze’s reach at 32.50 on the powerplay before Daniel Tedesco struck twice at 43.38 and 45.40.
The result means Blaze must overturn a five-goal deficit when the two teams meet in the second leg on Thursday, December 22 at the Skydome Arena with the face-off at 7.30pm.
And Blaze were then beaten 4-2 by Belfast Giants in the Elite League at the Skydome despite defenceman Brady Norrish beating Peyton Jones in the Giants goal with a hard shot at 3.59.
However, Belfast’s top goal and point scorer Scott Conway tied the game, capitalising on a two-on-one at 17.26.
And Giants completed the turnaround through defenceman and man of the match Sam Ruopp’s powerplay effort at 19.19.
Coventry equalised on the man advantage through captain Nate Halbert at 29.51 with the game tied until the final 10 minutes.
Both teams had further chances on the man advantage before Belfast scored the game-winning goal just as a Coventry opportunity ended with Matt Foley firing through the five-hole of Blaze goalie Paavo Holsa at 53.57.
Blaze pushed for an equaliser and pulled Holsa for an extra skater only for Giants captain David Goodwin to score into an empty net to settle the game.
