Blaze move three points ahead of Flames

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Coventry Blaze almost let a three-goal lead slip, but held on to beat Guildford Flames 3-2 in front of 2,147 fans at the Skydome, moving them three points clear of the Flames in fifth.

"I thought the team played great" began defenseman Brady Pouteau. "We came out hot to start, maybe let off a little bit there in the third but we locked it down. Our guys showed their big character there at the end blocking shots and making big stops. Mat Robson made some good saves in the third, and it was a good team effort to get two points."

Just 81 seconds into the game, Brandon Alderson snuck the puck in behind Jake Kupsky to give the Blaze an early lead. Guildford had several chances to reply the other way, including Brett Welychka hitting the crossbar, but found themselves down by two with 11:52 played when Alderson's feed found Alessio Luciani at the far post to make it 2-0.

Coventry ended the period on a 5-on-3 but were unable to extend their lead.

"It's great being back in the Elite League," added Pouteau. "Kevin (Moore) and Zach (Vinnell) have been great, helping me out a lot. I threw a lot of questions at them about systems and they had a lot of videos and helped me pretty quick.

"The fans here have been great, just hoping to keep it going."

5:23 into period two, David Clements' shot from the point had eyes of its own and found itself go all the way through to put the hosts three ahead. The middle period was plagued by a lot of penalties and special team play, but ended with no further scoring.

Brett Ferguson got the Flames on the board with 11:10 to play as the visitors took advantage of a powerplay, and then just 160 seconds later were back to within one through Welychka on a delayed penalty.

Kupsky headed to the bench with 2:05 to play as the Flames had good pressure on the Blaze net, with Pouteau throwing himself in front of a late Flames chance to block it. As the Blaze got the puck out, Travis Brown took a late penalty to all-but end the game with two seconds to play.

"We showed this weekend that we can play with anyone, in two very different kinds of games. It's nice to see that we have top end skill but that we also have that grit and fight that can make us dangerous in any situation."