It’s Wednesday night and it’s time to get the Challenge Cup Semi-Finals rolling.
Coventry Blaze host Belfast Giants in the first leg of their semi-final series, with the return game in Belfast in a week’s time. The score at 60 minutes tonight will carry over to that game. There is no overtime or shootout if the teams are tied at the end of this evening’s match-up.
Coventry have been one of the league’s in-form teams since the start of the year and are still without a regulation loss in 2026. They saw their eight-game unbeaten streak ended by the Giants on Sunday, surrendering a four-goal lead in an overtime defeat.
Belfast are the league leaders and come into the game on the back of three straight wins. Prior to that they had won eight in a row before slipping to a pair of one-point losses. Their last regulation defeat came against the Blaze on 4 January.
Coventry and Belfast have met in the Challenge Cup knock-out stages three times before. In two of those three meetings, the first leg in Coventry ended in a 1-1 tie, while in 2021 the Blaze came out 3-2 winners.
Coventry eliminated the Giants 5-4 on aggregate the last time they contested a Cup Quarter-Final in 2023/24, while the Giants won a Semi-Final in 2008/09 and a Quarter-Final in 2022/23.
Photo: Scott Stevens
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