With Coventry Blaze in town, an early Flames goal put them in a lead they would continue to increase over the course of the opening Cup Quarter final leg and Eamon McAdam pitched a shutout as Spectrum’s men registered a 5-0 win that gives them a 5 goal advantage to start leg 2 of the aggregate goal series.
Just under 8 minutes in, Turner Ripplinger set Flames to a lead that Sam Marklund doubled at 15:27.
Peter Crinella and the Flames powerplay had the only goal of the middle set timed at 32:50 to put Flames in control at 3-0 through 40 minutes.
At 43:38 Daniel Tedesco expanded the gap then made it wider yet when he added another a little more than 2 minutes later while McAdam remained perfect the rest of the way to close out the win.
McAdam turned away all 28 shots in his direction while Blaze netminder Paavo Hölsä was 34 for 39.
“It was a pretty solid showing from top to bottom in this one,” said Paul Dixon.
“I thought the guys arrived with a clear purpose in mind and they made sure they achieved it against a really good hockey team.”
“None of us would have predicted a 5 goal lead going to the 2nd leg, but we will take it because we may need it.”
“Coventry are a very talented team who can score goals, and we have lost more than one significant lead this season in one period let alone a whole game so we are comfortable but certainly not thinking this series is over.”
“Now it is key that we quickly switch our focus back to league for Sunday’s visit by Manchester Storm and then start thinking about a trip to Coventry for Leg 2 on Thursday.”
