Flames get the better of Coventry

Credit: John Unwins

Flames get the better of Coventry


On home ice Sunday night, the Flames doubled Coventry Blaze on the shot count and on the scoreboard to deliver a 6-3 Cup win.

Cam Braes picked up his first goal in a Flames uniform when he tipped a point shot for a Flames lead at 9:45. Ben Davies doubled the advantage with what looked like a broken play before he slipped a low backhander across the line less than a minute later. At 16:37 John Dunbar collected a loose puck behind the net and achieved just enough angle to stuff away the Flames 3-0 lead. Blaze cut into it nearly immediately on an ensuing powerplay thanks to a Luke Ferrara conversion, and that sent the clubs to the break on the 3-1 count.

Prior to the halfway mark, and during a powerplay, Jamie Crooks re-directed a shot that counted his team’s 4th of the night. Just after midway, Brett Ferguson added another powerplay goal to stake Spectrum's men to a 5-1 lead, but Blaze hit back through Evan Bloodoff at 34:11 to trail 5-2 at the close of 2 periods.

In the 46th minute Blaze drew a bit closer again with another Bloodoff powerplay marker, but as time wound down, and Blaze playing with an empty cage in favour of an extra attacker, Joshua Waller finished the scoring at 58:36.

Travis Fullerton made 18 stops on 21 shots and Jamie Phillips turned aside 37 of 42.

“We are thrilled to get on the Cup board with a win,” admitted Paul Dixon. “We are especially happy to have done it with a really strong effort that turned into some scoring.”

“We got on top of Coventry early and we made the first period very difficult for them, and had we done that without converting some of that pressure into goals it might have been a different outcome because the game was a little more back and forth the rest of the way.”

“We played well, though, and it is definitely nice to get off the home rink with a win at our backs.”

“We have a bit of a short week now, but we will get a couple of good practices in and then try to get a good start Thursday night when Cardiff stop at Spectrum.”