COVENTRY Blaze dropped out of the Elite League’s top-eight after losing 4-1 at Nottingham Panthers and suffering a 3-2 overtime defeat at Guildford Flames.
Blaze were no match for bottom club Nottingham at Motorpoint Arena before slipping to a late defeat at Guildford Spectrum.
The results mean Blaze sit ninth in the Elite League standings, one point outside of the top-eight with a game in-hand on Glasgow Clan who occupy the final play-off place.
Against Nottingham, Panthers spurned two early powerplay opportunities before Oliver Betteridge broke the deadlock at 13.41.
And Anthony Luciani doubled the home side’s lead on the rebound at 16.51 before Stephen Anderson put the game to bed with Nottingham’s third goal at 28.55 from Otto Nieminen’s pass.
Blaze responded through Ian McNulty from Johnny Curran’s assist at 35.03 only for Hugo Roy to complete the scoring for the home side at 38.34 on the powerplay.
The following night, Blaze suffered a sixth straight defeat at Guildford as Matt Alvaro put Flames ahead at 4.02 from Ben O’Connor’s assist.
However, Blaze equalised at 17.45 when blue-liner Alexander Kuqali scored his fourth goal of the season before Curran completed the turnaround at 41.52.
Flames levelled late on at 53.59 when Ryan Tait found the net before O’Connor won the game for the home side in the final minute of the overtime period.
Coventry are next in action at home to Manchester Storm on Wednesday, April 3 with the face-off at 7.30pm at the Skydome Arena.
