Norrish wins it again for Blaze in OT

Photo: John Uwins

Captain Brady Norrish scored Coventry Blaze's winner in overtime for the second successive game in a 3-2 road victory over Guildford Flames on Wednesday night.

The Flames went on the offensive from puck drop and had an early Patrik Bajkov shot calling Taran Kozun into an early save. Coventry's best chance of the opening six minutes came in the form of Kobe Roth capitlaising on a mistake in the Flames own end, but Eamon McAdam was alert to the pass to Alessio Luciani. While Guildford had the better of the chances in the opening period, it was Coventry who took the lead thanks to a James Shearer shot through traffic with 10:18 played. That lead, however, lasted barely three minutes when Matt Tugnutt got on the end of a Lewis Hook pass to the crease to tie things up at 13:08.

Less than 90 seconds later, Matt Alvaro tipped a Kyle Locke shot at the top of Kozun's crease to put the Flames ahead.

Neither side managed to change the scoreline in the middle period, although the Flames came closest with a couple of odd-man rushes that they were unable to take advantage of. As the period wound down, Coventry saw their third powerplay of the night end without anything to show for it.

Mitch Cook scored his second goal in as many games as a Flames mix-up in their own zone ended with the Blaze forward firing past McAdam to tie the game with just under nine minutes to go. Peter Crinella and Lewis hook almost combined to put the Flames back ahead immediately but found only the side netting of Kozun's net.

Guildford survived a late Bradley Lalonde penalty as he took evasive action to prevent a breakaway after tripping on an offensive zone shooting opportunity, while Patrick Bajkov made a huge block on a Brady Norrish slapshot with 35 seconds left in regulation.

Steven McParland was giving a Boarding minor on the buzzer to put Coventry on a 4-on-3 advantage in overtime. 84 seconds into the extra period, the visitors finally made a powerplay count with a Brady Norrish slapshot from the point earning them the win. 

The win moved Coventry into fifth, while guildford's point puts them second.