Blaze take key cup win in Cardiff

Photo: James Assinder

Coventry Blaze kept their hopes of making the next round of the Challenge Cup very much alive with an excellent 5-3 win over Cardiff Devils at a sold-out Vindico Arena.

Ryan Barrow tipped a Jarrod Gourley shot past Mat Robson to put the Devils ahead at 14:01 on the powerplay, but that was the only time the Devils would lead in the game. Kim Tallberg tied the game just under two minutes later when he put home the rebound from a Jackson Cressey shot at 15:57 Nick Seitz gave the Blaze the lead with 70 seconds left in the opening period when he got on the rebound from a Brandon Alderson one-timer, and the visitors lead by one through 20 minutes.

The sides traded goals in the middle period to come out at a 2-3 scoreline after 40 minutes. Alderson scored against his former team as the Blaze broke from a defensive zone faceoff at 25:48, while 2:06 before the buzzer Kohen Olischefski slotted home in front off Josh MacDonald's feed to make it a one-goal game heading into period three.

The all-important next goal went the way of the Blaze 9:26 into the third. A puck bouncing off Evan Mosey's stick set the Blaze up in the Devils zone, and eventually led to Chase Gresock firing a one-timer past Bowns to put the visitors back two ahead. Zach O'Brien made things interesting with 5:04 to play, but Tallberg fired into the empty net from his own zone to settle the game in the visitors' favour with 1:44 to go.

On the Devils’ third goal, Joey Martin collected an assist to make him the Elite League’s new all-time leading overseas point-scorer. He moved onto 597 points to take the lead outright from Jeff Legue.