The DPD Coventry Blaze began their 2026/27 pre-season campaign with a 3-1 victory over Manchester Storm at Skydome Arena on Saturday.
Blaze started brightly and kept Evan Weninger busy in the Storm net during the early stages. The home side’s strong start was rewarded at 9:33 when William Boysen’s pass found Connor Russell in space, with the returning defenceman making no mistake to fire Blaze into a 1-0 lead.
Momentum shifted towards the end of the opening period, with Blaze finding themselves in penalty trouble and giving Storm several opportunities on the powerplay. However, the Blaze penalty-kill and netminder Evan Fitzpatrick stood strong to preserve their advantage heading into the first intermission.
The second period was an even affair, but Storm found a way through just before the halfway mark. Patrick Kudla beat a well-screened Fitzpatrick at 29:38 to bring the visitors level at 1-1.
As the game passed the halfway point, Storm made a change in net, with Drew DeRidder replacing Weninger as the visitors shared the pre-season game time between their goaltenders.
Storm then had a golden opportunity to take the lead with five minutes remaining in the second period, breaking away on a 3-on-1. Fitzpatrick, however, continued his impressive debut with another strong stop to keep the scores level.
Blaze regained the lead with 11:38 remaining in the third period following a neat piece of transition play. Griffin Ness’ cross-ice pass was blocked, but the puck fell kindly to last season’s joint-top scorer Matthew Gleason, who finished in front to make it 2-1.
The other half of Blaze’s joint-leading scoring duo from last season, Grant Mismash, then put the result beyond doubt on the powerplay with 5:10 remaining, converting to give Coventry a 3-1 advantage.
Both sides had plenty of opportunities to work on their powerplay and penalty kill throughout the contest, which proved to be a highly competitive, physical and entertaining pre-season encounter for the fans in attendance.
Photo credit: Scott Wiggins
