The Genting Casino Coventry Blaze were beaten twice by the Belfast Giants at SSE Arena on Friday and Saturday.
Friday: Giants 5 Blaze 1
The Belfast Giants won game one of a double header against the Genting Casino Coventry Blaze 5-1 at SSE Arena on Friday.
Following an emotional tribute to Assistant Blaze Coach Dayle ‘Keeno’ Keen who sadly passed away on Monday, the first period was played with little incident.
Coventry took a lead on 24 minutes when Mitch Cook scored on a rebound from a Blake Thompson shot, but that’s as good as it got for the away side as the Giants went on to score five unanswered.
The game-tying goal came a little under five minutes later, as Kohei Sato’s excellent pass put the puck straight on Oliver Cooper’s stick who levelled in close at 27.03.
Daniel Tedesco next gloved the puck down and backhanded past Taran Kozun to put the Giants 2-1 ahead at 29.08 after which Blaze coach Danny Stewart called a time-out.
Two goals in the opening seven minutes of period three put the game beyond the Blaze.
Blake Speers made it 3-1 at 43.57, followed by former Blaze forward Ben Lake adding the Giants’ fourth with just under 14 minutes to play. Sato rounded off the Giants’ victory with 5.41 to play.
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Saturday: Giants 5 Blaze 3
The Belfast Giants completed a four-point weekend with a hard fought 5-3 victory over the Genting Casino Coventry Blaze on Saturday.
In contrast to the night before, the opening period was full of action as the teams shared four goals.
Danny Kristo was provider for Blaze’s top scorer Kobe Roth at 2.31, and his 21st of the regular season put the away side 0-1 in front.
Will Cullen intercepted the puck in the neutral zone to skate clean through on Nolan Kent and finish nicely to tie the game five minutes later, but Kristo and Roth combined again to put the Blaze back ahead at 9.43.
Cullen then slapped home a David Goodwin pass for his second of the night to tie the game at 19.19.
Blake Speers put the Giants ahead 94 seconds into period two with a shot high over Kent following a nice interchange with Ara Nazarian.
But this time, the Blaze pegged them back with Ian McNulty tapping home Kristo’s feed into the slot.
Bobby MacIntyre put the Giants back ahead, taking advantage of a turnover just under four minutes from the end of the second period.
Ben Lake then scored shorthanded at 47.40 to give his former employers an uphill task heading into the closing stages of the game.
Coventry pulled Kent for the extra skater for the final 2.02 but without success, the Giants took another win.
