Blaze come from behind to take shootout win
Photo: Derek Black
Coventry Blaze avenged their overtime defeat in Dundee earlier this season by coming from 3-1 down to eventually beat the Stars in a shootout on Saturday night.
Nick Seitz scored two and again in the shootout to help the Blaze to the win. “" think it probably wasn't our cleanest effort, we definitely didn't have a great start, but I think we were just really resilient and kind of found an extra gear in the third and found a way to win,” said the 24-year-old.
“Honestly, it felt like a similar game to last time where they came out really hard and we were a little sluggish, they carried the play for a good chunk of that game. We just found a way to win, and we've been learning how to do that as the season goes on which I think is exciting.”
Dundee opened the scoring at 04:12, as Brett Gravelle scored his fourth goal in five games. Keanu Yamamoto took the puck behind the Coventry net and sent a pass to the high slot where Gravelle was waiting to snap the puck past Mat Robson.
Brendan Harms quickly doubled the lead at 04:51, deflecting an innocent looking shot from Kyle Pouncy past Robson to make it 2-0.
The 2-0 lead didn’t last long, as Nick Seitz got the Blaze on the board just 10 seconds later at 05:01. After Richard Sabol made an initial save on a Coventry shot, the rebound fell to the stick of Seitz who slotted it home and made it 2-1 – where the score would stay until the end of the period.
Coventry generated their best chances early in the second period, including a four-minute powerplay which put Richard Sabol to the test.
However, despite this, the visitors couldn’t find the back of the Stars’ net and remained on the chase to tie the game.
Philippe Sanche scored the only goal of the period, netting his fifth of the season and making it 3-1 in the process.
After drawing a hooking call in front of the Blaze net, Sanche wasted no time in taking advantage of the delayed penalty. The Canadian sent the puck towards the Blaze net on his backhand, which took an awkward bounce and was deflected in by the pad of Mat Robson at 35:10.
Seitz then had the Blaze back to within one again when he struck 5:20 into period three to pull the score back to 3-2.
“I thought I played well. I thought our line played really well. We complement each other's skills in a lot of good ways and thought we got the forecheck going pretty well, and kind of stuck with it even when we were struggling in the first and second,” added Seitz.
Pressure was growing on Sabol in the Stars net, and Terrence Amorosa levelled the game with 4:54 to play getting on a rebound from his own attempt to throw the puck in front below behind the goal line. Both teams earned a point with the game going to overtime.
Sabol denied Alessio Luciani twice in OT to keep the game level while Robson made a huge save to deny Brendan Harms in close.
No goals in the bonus period saw the extra point decided in a shootout. After some excellent goals from both teams, it was Kim Tallberg who won it in round five for the visitors to send the two points back down south.
