EHL: Blaze edge out Stars
Coventry Blaze were given a scare by Dundee Stars but eventually emerged with a hard fought 4-3 victory at the Skydome
Last Updated: 01/12/11 12:16pm
Coventry Blaze were given a scare by Dundee Stars but eventually emerged with a hard fought 4-3 victory in their Elite League contest at the Skydome.
The home side dominated the opening period but only had a single Greg Owen goal to show for it and the Stars levelled early in the second period through John Dolan.
Blaze home debutant Woo-Sang Park then put his new team 2-1 in front but Dundee came back again when Brent Hughes made it 2-2 at 34.03.
The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued in the third period when Luke Fulghum fired the Blaze back ahead before Dan Ceman tied it up, but Mike McLean then netted what would prove to be the decisive strike at 50.11.
Braehead Clan secured their first away points of the Elite League regular season as Mike Bayrack scored a hat-trick in their 4-3 overtime win against Cardiff Devils.
The contest started slowly with a goalless first period but Jeff Pierce fired the Devils ahead at 31.54, although the hosts had by then had Chris Frank ejected for a check from behind on Clan player/coach Drew Bannister.
Bayrack levelled on a five-on-three powerplay before Max Birbraer edged Cardiff back ahead, but Bayrack then struck again to ensure the second period ended 2-2.
Bayrack completed his second hat-trick of the weekend to give the visitors the lead 58 seconds into the third period, but Ben Davies tied the scores at 54.32.
Both goaltenders made great plays in the extra period until Tim Wedderburn netted with 31 seconds left to secure the win for the Clan.
Injury-hit Fife Flyers slumped to 0-14 in regular season play as the Nottingham Panthers thrashed them 8-1.
Jordan Fox was the star for the visitors with two goals and three assists, while Brock Wilson, Robert Lachowicz and David-Alexandre Beauregard also netted to make it 5-0 at the end of the second period.
In the third, Danny Meyers, Jeff Heerema and Marc Levers all netted for the Panthers, with Matt Siddall salvaging some pride for Fife and ending Craig Kowalski's hopes of a shutout.
In the Challenge Cup, Belfast Giants moved to the top of Group A with a convincing 8-2 victory over Edinburgh Capitals.
Young GB star Craig Peacock and Tom Dignard was also on target at 21.19 netted a treble but the Capitals kept the scoreline somewhat honest late into the second period due to goals from Sean Menton and Marcis Zembergs.
Benoit Doucet then hit the Giants' fifth before goals from Robert Dowd, Mark Garside and Dowd again made it more than comfortable for the away side.
Sheffield Steelers kept their hopes of reaching the Challenge Cup semi-finals alive as they edged Hull Stingrays 2-1 in a tight Group B contest at Ice Sheffield.
The home side opened the scoring at 12.37 when Colt King fired home and RG Flath then doubled the Steelers' lead at 35.36.
Andy McKinney halved the deficit as he was on target for the Stingrays late in the second period but there was to be no more scoring despite plenty of endeavour from both sides in the final period.
