The Genting Casino Coventry Blaze fought back from three goals down en route to a 5-4 overtime victory over Fife Flyers at Skydome Arena on Sunday.
Coventry came into the game well rested after having Saturday night free of a fixture, but despite coach Danny Stewart stressing the importance of a strong start it was the Flyers who took an early lead.
Johan Eriksson was the scorer at 5.07, taking advantage of a turnover in the Blaze end with the assists going to Lucas Chiodo and Casey Gilling.
Fife doubled their lead at 22.32 when Eriksson’s pass from behind the Coventry goal found Chiodo who finished neatly past Taran Kozun.
Just 75 seconds later the visitors made it 0-3 when Chiodo’s re-direct on a scrambled play alluded Kozun and it looked as though the Flyers were going to go on and take a clean sweep of victories from Skydome Arena this season.
The Blaze found life just over two minutes later when David Clements’ pass was finished by top scorer Kobe Roth for his 15th of the Elite League regular season.
Coventry then began to take over the game and Captain Brady Norrish brought it back to 2-3 at 35.04.
Just 90 seconds later, Blaze got the game level when J.D. Dudek registered on the powerplay.
Dudek then thought he had put his side 4-3 ahead with 1.17 remaining in the second, but with the officials not calling a goal and the play continuing for a prolonged period, a review was not possible due to limitations of the arena replay system.
The Flyers again went ahead at 44.18 through Troy Lajeunesse, but Mitch Cook’s first goal of the regular season brought the scores back level before the 48-minute mark.
As has become common for Blaze, the game went into overtime and for the eighth time this season, they found a way to win when Johnny Curran’s smart move found Norrish and his shot trickled through Kevin Lindskoug and into the Flyers net at 60.52.
Photo credit: Scott Wiggins
