After Flames built a 3 goal lead, Coventry Blaze scored a couple 3rd period goals to pull within a single then a late Mike Crocock insurance marker turned out to be the winner that overcame a final Blaze strike just over a minute from time to close the evening on a 5-4 Flames win.
Blaze struck early thanks to a Nathan Ripley starter 99 seconds into the contest, but 3 unanswered Flames replies less than 2 minutes apart sent Flames to break with a 3-1 lead. Brett Ferguson levelled at 4:29. Turner Ripplinger was on target just 22 seconds later and Daniel Tedesco added another at 6:14.
The only goal of the middle set also went the way of Surrey’s men thanks to Sam Marklund’s powerplay counter at 34:26 to give them a 3 goal advantage through 40 minutes.
At 45:55, Blaze got one back through Tanner Lishchynsky to cut their deficit to a pair. They made it a single just over 7 minutes from time with a Radek Veselý strike. Crocock looked to have doused the comeback effort entirely when he re-stored the 2 goal lead at 56:59, but a Ross Venus cut the deficit again 73 seconds out and then a Flames penalty and a Blaze empty net had them enjoying a 6 on 4 manpower advantage that ultimately did not translate to an equalizer.
“Well, that was an exciting finish!”, offered Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon.
“You like to think when you have a 3 goal lead to start the 3rd period that you are not biting your fingernails off in the last minute hoping you can still hang on for the win.”
“Having said that, Coventry is a really good hockey team that can score goals, and you can’t let them come at you or they will start finding the net.”
“In the end we did enough to hold on to the good work that got us in a good position earlier in the game, so we will take it and now start to look ahead to Sunday night against Glasgow Clan in our building.”
