Blaze climb into top eight

Genting Casino Coventry Blaze moved into the Rapid Solicitors Elite League play-off positions after a 4-3 win over Nottingham Panthers after penalty shots at the Skydome.

Blaze were without injured trio Derek Lee, Steven Chalmers and Mike Egener but did welcome back Ryan O’Marra after suspension.

Greg Jacina put Panthers ahead at 18.09 before three goals and a fight made for an explosive start to the second session. 175px-CoventryBlaze

Evan Mosey (21.19) doubled Panthers lead but James Griffin replied within 12 seconds and Cale Tanaka made it 2-2 at 23.29.

Blaze then had Jim Jorgensen ejected on a match penalty for checking to the head at 25.54 which resulted in a fight with Robert Farmer.

Mark Smith nudged Blaze ahead for the first time at 39.11 but Charles Landry’s game-tying goal at 46.24 ensured overtime. The match went to penalties and Jereme Tendler was the only shooter to score in five attempts.

Coach Chuck Weber said: “It was a grind in the end but we found a way to win.

“The first period was a great hockey game and the second was good quality. I felt in the third we got away from things and they had some quality chances. But Stewy [goaltender Brian Stewart] was big in the shoot-out and Tendler had a lovely finish.

“We were down by two but Griff getting the goal back right away was huge, Tanaka’s goal was a fantastic play from that line with O’Marra and [Steve] Goertzen and we got a little bit of luck with the third goal but we will take that as we have not had a lot of puck luck.

“We went down to four ‘D’ [when Jorgensen was thrown out] and Griff gave us a couple of shifts. I have to give our ‘D’ a lot of credit for how hard they worked.”

Leave a Comment