17 Nov 2024, 17:30 | Regular season | SkyDome Arena |
Coventry Blaze | 4-3 | Nottingham Panthers |
Periods: Shots: | 3-1 (13-10) | 1-1 (7-8) | 0-1 (9-20) | Total: 29-38 |
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Referees: Wells/Ions  |  Spectators: 2187 |
  |
Goals and assists
Coventry Blaze made Danny Stewart's second visit back to the Skydome
an unhappy one as they beat his Nottingham Panthers side 4-3 on Sunday
night, staying fourth in the table. 2,187 fans saw them to victory at
the Skydome.
"It's such a cliche, but I think we got back to
fundamentals this week," said Michael Regush who scored the home side's
third goal on the night. "We had a good week in practice, a total team
reset, and we stuck to our game plan."
Nick Seitz gave the home
side the lead inside three minutes. Having originally passed to Alessio
Luciani on a 2-on-1 that was stopped by Ryan Bednard, the puck worked
its way back to Seitz to finish backhanded on the spin at 2:23.
Matt Alfaro levelled shorthanded at 5:11 at the second attempt after whiffing on his original shot.
David
Clements' shot from the points beat Bednard glove side to make it 2-1
at 12:30, a goal that the Panthers' goalie would probably have wanted
back.
An excellent opening period for the hosts was completed by
Michael Regush, skating almost coast to coast and shooting through a
crowd on players to make it 3-1 at 16:56.
"I think, for us,
sometimes when we don't get results our fans can see that we've worked
very hard. So it's nice when it does come through, but I never question
our team's work-rate. When you get two results like this against good
teams you can see that the work-rate and execution are going hand in
hand" added Regush.
Panthers captain Sam Herr pulled his team back
to one behind when he finished off an Alfaro pass 2:44 into period two,
but the crucial next goal went the way of the Blaze - Brandon Alderson
one-timing through Bednard's five-hole at 32:53.
Ollie Betteridge
made the final moments interesting when he scored at 58:11, but the
Panthers were unable to tie the game on 98 seconds with the extra skater
and went down to their second 4-3 loss of the weekend.
"Our fans
are awesome! I can't say enough good things about them, they definitely
get the guys into it. In the third, when you're feeling a little tired,
the energy was awesome and helped us see it out" concluded Regush.