Flames blitz Blaze in third period

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Five goals in the third period saw Guildford Flames turn a 3-1 deficit into a 6-3 win against Coventry Blaze on Wednesday night at the Skydome.

"It’s a huge result for us, especially coming in off the win we had on Sunday. At this time of year it’s important to get on a roll, and in the manner we did it with the comeback it’s great momentum for us going into the weekend," explained Lewis Hook, who was playing in his first game since 11 January. He ended the game with two goals. "The first few shifts were a little rusty, but I got into the game and scoring helps settle the nerves."

The first five minutes of this game were full of chances for both teams. At 8.50, Nick Seitz had a penalty shot after being slashed when through on goal but the shot was saved by Jake Kupsky.

Jack Hopkins opened the scoring at 12:42. After Archie Hazeldine had set up Kim Tallberg for a shot, and while Kupsky made a pad save Hopkins was on hand to put home the rebound. Lewis Hook tied the game with 1:50 left in the opening period with a high over Mat Robson's shoulder to send the teams into the break level.

Seitz scored his and the Blaze's second of the night at 25:06 on the powerplay, and some four minutes later the home side thought they'd gone 3-1 ahead - but Mike Regush's effort was washed out for a high stick. Coventry did get their third period before the period was out, however. Brandon Alderson beat a Flames defenseman to the puck and put it on a plate for Regush to slot past Kupsky on a 2-on-1 at 38:23.

“We were ok in the first period, but after the second Paul (Dixon, head coach) called us in and said it just wasn’t acceptable, especially with how we’d played against Sheffield," explained Hook. "In that period, we played a different game and he expected us to just get back to playing fast and simple, be more direct, and I think you can see that in how we scored in the third.”

Brett Ferguson pulled the Flames back to within one with a shot that snuck past Robson 4:21 into the third period, while some two minutes later Charlie Curti found the net on the powerplay to make it a tied game. Ethan Strang was left in space in the slot to put the Flames ahead with 9:08 to play, before Matt Alvaro then gave them a two-goal advantage six minutes later.

Kevin Moore pulled Robson with 1:40 to play to try and get his team back into things, but just ten seconds later they could only watch as Lewis Hook skated through to score into the empty net.

"Every game now is playoff hockey, and we want to try and gather some momentum going into the playoffs" concluded Hook.