The Genting Casino Coventry Blaze added an important point to their Challenge Cup tally with a 1-2 overtime defeat to Guildford Flames on Saturday Skydome Arena.
With the game on armistice day, face-off followed a period of remembrance, which like Blaze’s special jerseys for the evening paid special tribute to the lives lost on HMS Coventry (D118).
In-form American forward Kobe Roth opened the scoring for the home side at 3.25, with assists going to James Shearer and J.D. Dudek.
A constant threat all night Flames’ Man of the Match Peter Crinella tied the game on 8.02 and that’s the way the scoring remained through 20 minutes.
The second period was one of little incident, but the action picked up in the third and into an eventual overtime period.
With just under 14 minutes left, Blaze did everything but score on their third powerplay of the night before Taran Kozun was forced to be strong on Flames’ first man advantage.
Coventry’s goalie was also excellent in the final minutes, earning himself the Man of the Match award to send the game into three-on-three overtime.
In the additional period a moment of brilliance from Flames’ Captain Brett Ferguson was the difference as he danced past a Blaze defenceman before finishing superbly past Kozun at 61.01.
With the Nottingham Panthers withdrawing from the Challenge Cup competition following the sad passing of Adam Johnson, both the Blaze and Flames have qualified for the quarter-final stages, but the finishing positions and match ups are still to be determined.
Photo credit: Scott Wiggins
