Blaze round off pre-season with road win

Photo: Mark Ferris

Coventry Blaze rounded off the 2023/24 pre-season schedule with a two-goal road win over Manchester Storm on Wednesday night at the Storm Shelter.

The Blaze took an early lead shorthanded - a lost puck in the offensive zone faceoff led to a 3-on-2 rush for the visitors with JD Dudek shooting over Evan Weninger's shoulder to open the scoring. Midway through period two, both teams swapped goalies with Alex Oldale coming into the hosts' net, and Will Bray taking on netminding duties for the Blaze.

Storm levelled at 32:59 through  Andreas Heier who pounced on a smart Santeri Haarala pass in front of the net. 26 seconds later, the Blaze turned the puck over in their own end allowing Tyler Hinam to beat Bray for put Storm ahead.

Three goals in a little over five minutes swung the game back in Coventry's favour in the final period. Ian McNulty tied the game at 54:59 with a backdoor finish off an Alessio Luciani feed. Cole Donhauser finished after a defensive mistake from the Storm to put the Blaze 3-2 ahead 69 seconds later, before McNulty settled things into the empty net.

Documents

• PS25 Manchester Storm 2-4 Coventry Blaze 200923 (*.pdf, 3.3 MB)