Ripley double helps Blaze past clan

Photo: Al Goold

19-year-old Nathan Ripley scored his first two professional goals which were enough to help the Coventry Blaze to an important road win in Glasgow.

After some decent early Clan pressure, a heavy touch from Cody Sol turned the puck over on the offensive blueline, allowing Johnny Curran to break and set up Ross Venus for the 2-on-0 finish with 5:23 played. Clan tied things up with a Mitch Jones shot as Coventry returned to four skaters at 9:45, but the visitors were to lead by the end of the period. Dane Gibson shot through a good screen on the powerplay at 17:17 for the period's final goal.

Blaze went 3-1 ahead through Alec Marsh shorthanded 5:28 into the second, but the visitors were about to be pegged back by two Clan goals in under five minutes. Guillaume Gauthier reacted immediately with  one-time finish from a tight angle, with Tim Shoup tying the game form the circle at 31:05. Coventry were back in the lead before the intermission, however, as Ripley got on a loose puck to score his first professional goal at 35:13.

Ripley struck again 8:04 into period three with good awareness to crash the net and finish from Alex Forbes' pass to put the Blaze 5-3 up, but Nolan LaPorte responded just 56 seconds later to set up an exciting final 11 minutes. CJ Motte came up with a couple of big stops to keep the Blaze ahead, and when Starrett was pulled for the extra skater Match Cook found the empty net with 40 seconds remaining to seal the Blaze's second win in Glasgow this season.