Blaze back into fifth

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Coventry Blaze moved backed into fifth in the Elite League standings with a 5-2 win over Fife Flyers, although the basement side pushed them until the very end.

"I think we knew if we just stuck to our game plan that we’d give ourselves a good chance to win the game. It was important we didn’t get discouraged with the score. We were creating chances but were still tied, so it was just about sticking with it and trusting ourselves," said Brandon Alderson, who had two assists in the game. "Our coach switched up the lines today, and sometimes that’s an adjustment for the players, but team chemistry is huge. I thought all of our lines played well tonight, and a matter of seconds can make a difference between scoring or not."

Morten Jurgens put the home side ahead one second short of the ten-minute mark, but the Flyers were to level up before the period was out off a Tyler Heidt shot form the point.

Alessio Luciani put the Blaze back ahead 4:27 into period two off a Nick Seitz pass across the slot, but a moment of magic from Michael City, pulling the puck between his legs and finishing past Mat Robson, tied the game again some four minutes later. Both sides had powerplay chances before the period was out, but ended the period all square.

The Blaze were on top to start period three, and eventually did take the lead again - Chase Gresock the scorer with just over 12 minutes to play. Alexander Kuqali added another 35 seconds later to give the home side some breathing space, but Fife ocntinued to come and pulled Owen with two minutes to go. Gresock fired into the empty net with 43 seconds remaining to wrap up the game.

The Blaze's win came after two defeats already this week. "We’ve been in games for the most part but recently had some slip away. We saw this as a must-win game," added Alderson. "Despite Fife being last in the standings, they’re a tought team to play against so it was a big game and it gives us some confidence going into the next games. At this point of the season, every game is going to be important, you see how tight the standings are."