Coventry Blaze responded to Wednesday night’s Challenge Cup Final defeat with a 7-3 home win over Fife Flyers.
“I thought it was a really slow start from us, we were obviously coming off a very big game on Wednesday that had a lot of emotion in it,” began Blaze’s Grayson Constable. “We had to get our legs back into the regular season as it’s coming down to the wire here.”
Fife made a strong start, opening the scoring at 07:18 through Ben Brown, who finished from close range. The visitors doubled their lead midway through the period as quick passing from Hunt and McLean set up Justin Ducharme to score with Robson out of position.
The Blaze pulled one back late in the period on the powerplay, with Adam Robbins converting a rebound from Jordan Power’s shot. Just 49 seconds later, Artem Buzoverya tied the game at 2-2, firing high past Christian Purboo.
“I thought it was a disappointing start for us, but we really turned it around after that time-out,” continued Constable. “It showed that we can play under pressure when down a few goals. Lessons learned there for sure.
“We had a conversation after the first period without the coaches in the locker room, and then Kevin called a timeout at the right time to turn it around for us.”
Ducharme restored Fife’s lead early in the second period, finishing one-on-one with Robson, but Coventry responded quickly. William Boysen levelled the game from close range before Grant Mismash tipped in a Grayson Constable shot to put the Blaze ahead for the first time.
Jordan Power added a fifth goal shorthanded to give Coventry breathing room heading into the third period.
Mismash and Robbins both scored again in the final period to secure a comfortable victory for the Blaze.
Photo: Scott Wiggins
