Blaze stay in touch with top four

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Coventry Blaze stayed in touch with the Elite League's top four places with a 5-1 win in front of over 1,900 fans at the Skydome.

"The biggest thing was we came back into our rink, knowing we've had al ot of success here, and got back to what we do best," said Alessio Luciani. "As a line, all three of us did a good job of being connected. As a team, we got contributions from all three lines which really helped."

Some six minutes into the game the hosts should have opened the scoring, only for an excellent sliding save by Evan Weninger across to his post denying the Blaze from going ahead. Coventry did take the lead shortly after, however, with a loose puck bouncing kindly to Kim Tallberg in the slot to beat Weninger shorthanded at 13:58. With 96 seconds left in the period, Alessio Luciani fired past the Storm goalie to double the lead.

Period two took 40 minutes to complete with a fight and several post-whistle scrums. The Blaze went three ahead 5:48 into the period when Morten Jürgen's spin and shot beat Weninger at his near post on a shot he'd like to have had back. After Cam Critchlow and Jürgens had received roughing minors, tempers boiled over with Mike Kennedy and Jake Durflinger dropping the gloves at 30:14. 72 seconds later, an excellent Alexis D'Aoust pass landed perfectly on the stick of Craig Martin to bat home at 31:26 and get Storm on the board.

"We did a good job managing the bench and managing our emotions in that period," added Luciani. "We try not to let penalties or anything else interfere with what w'ere doing and I thought we did that very well today."

Brandon Alderson was left all alone at the far post to convert a Michael Regush pass with 2:05 left in the second to make it 4-1 and give the Blaze their three-goal cushion back.

A late couple of minors on Storm gave the Blaze a 5-on-3 to end the gamr with, and they scored the night's final goal at 58:01 with a point shot from Chase Gresock.