Tonight: Blaze host Panthers for first time this season

Photo: Panthers Images

Coventry Blaze return to action to face the Nottingham Panthers at the Skydome for the first time this season.

The sides should have met over New Year but the games were postponed due to COVID-19 protocol, the reason the Blaze’s midweek fixture in Guildford was also postponed.

The two sides go into this fixture separated by two places and five points in the Premier Sports Elite League table. After a run of five games without a win, Nottingham now head into this one having beaten Cardiff and Manchester in the last seven days. The Panthers’ chances of making the top three have likely passed for this season, but they do need to be careful to not get sucked down into the five-way battle for playoff places.

Coventry picked up an excellent road win in Glasgow a week ago before going down 5-1 at home to Guildford. Those results leave Danny Stewart’s men with 28 points from 29 games so far - the least number of games played among all 10 teams. The Blaze would be a place higher according to points percentage.

So far as special teams go, neither side has cracked 20% on the powerplay though the Panthers come closest on 19.61% compared to Coventry’s lowly 15.89%. Nottingham have the superior penalty kill on 80.80% compared to Blaze’s 76.03%. Neither team have a player among the league’s top ten point scorers. Coventry's Luke Ferrara is the closest at #15 with 15 goals and 14 assists through 28 games played.

In the only meeting between the teams this season, Coventry came out 5-2 winners in Nottingham. The Blaze’s last home win over the Panthers was in October 2019.