COVENTRY Blaze came from two goals down to beat Fife Flyers 4-2 on the road before defeating Cardiff Devils via a shootout on home ice.
Blaze needed three third period goals to claim victory at Fife Ice Arena as Kobe Roth, Alexander Kuqali and Alessio Luciani all struck to seal the points after JD Dudek had initially reduced the deficit.
And Blaze then beat Cardiff 3-2 at the Skydome Arena as Ian McNulty scored the winning goal in the shootout having already struck twice in regulation time.
Despite extending their winning run to three matches, Coventry remain bottom of the Elite League standings.
Against Fife, the Flyers broke the deadlock at 11.40 through Casey Gilling before Sean Giles doubled the home side’s lead at 23.45 with a fortunate goal.
However, Blaze halved the deficit at 24.20 with Dudek finishing Roth’s pass before the latter levelled the game at 46.15, shooting through traffic to beat Shane Owen in the Fife net.
And Kuqali completed the turnaround at 51.52 with a stunning shot before Luciani scored into an empty net at 58.33 after Fife pulled netminder Owen for the extra skater.
Blaze backed up that performance with a home win against Cardiff despite a goalless first period.
McNulty eventually opened the scoring at 20.21 on the powerplay which saw Blaze fans throw hundreds of teddy bears and soft toys onto the ice as part of the club’s Air the Bear initiative.
However. the Devils turned the game on its head through goals from Riley Brandt at 29.33 and Justin Crandall at 38.47 before the end of the second period.
And after Blaze pulled netminder Taran Kozun for the extra skater, and Cardiff’s Jamie Arniel twice failed to finish into an empty net, McNulty sent the game to overtime with a goal at 58.40.
Neither side found a winner in overtime which sent the game to a shootout with McNulty scoring the winner after Roth and Dudek both scored while Kozun recorded a shutout.
Blaze head coach Danny Stewart said: “It was a character win from our guys.
“We got back from Fife at 6am so a lot of it was about will and the resiliency of these guys.
“It was a great fightback in the third and it was good to see us get that tying goal and go on to win.”
Blaze host Belfast Giants and Nottingham Panthers on Saturday, December 9 and Sunday, December 10 respectively with the face-offs to take place at 7pm and 5.30pm at the Skydome.
