Flames fight back, win in shootout

Photo: John Uwins

Guildford Flames came back from two goals down before eventually beating Coventry Blaze in a shootout on Sunday night.

"It's not hard to find the motivation for games, but it definitely hurt coming in to this game off the back of Saturday night and the manner in which we lost that game," said Jack Jacome who scored in both regulation and the shootout. "It was a testament to the mental toughness of the guys in how room how we got back to our process tonight."

The Blaze came out fast and were rewarded with the opening goal of the game - Nick Seitz setting up Anthony Luciani who beat Jake Kupsky with a nice deke just 2:33 into the game. Hard work by the Blaze saw them draw the Flames into taking penalties, and a 5-on-3 advantage allowed Seitz to double the Blaze's lead with 46 seconds remaining in the first period.

Jacome got Guildford on the board and back into things when he capitalised on an interception and beat Mat Robson with 2:27 remaining in the second, setting up a one-goal game going into the third.

The Flames' comeback was completed by Lewis Hook just 80 seconds into the final period, although there was late drama when Travis Brown was ejected for kneeing with 5:46 to play. The hosts killed off the entire five-minute powerplay and each team too ka point with the game heading into overtime. 

Coventry were awarded a penalty shot in OT but couldn't convert, and the game was eventually decided in a shootout - Kupsky stopped all three Blaze attempts, while Jacome, Ethan Strang and Brett Ferguson netted at the other end to give the Flames the extra point.