Blaze vs Sheffield Steelers – 10 December 2011
Welcome to my first article covering the Coventry Blaze for UKAmericanSportsFans.com. I’ll be writing articles covering match reports and relevant news stories as and when they occur.
And there has been a lot of news coming out of Coventry over the past two weeks. First, Frank Bakrlik was signed after being released by Hull and then Luke Fulghum was (at the time) mysteriously released. The club managed a four-point weekend before announcing they were in financial difficulties and desperately needed as much help as they could get, sponsoring kit, buying match tickets etc. All of this was focussed towards the Challenge Cup game against Sheffield on Saturday. In the midst of all of this, Woo-Sang Park was confirmed as having signed a contract for the remainder of the season after impressing during his initial trial period.
The game itself was pretty much a non-entity for the Blaze. They could not qualify for the semi-finals and as such could only spoil Sheffield’s path to the final four. However Sheffield only needed a draw from the game to still have a chance of qualification. Despite simply playing for pride; Coventry appeared to be highly motivated for the game, presumably to impress the crowd who had turned up for the game. Neil Clark was missing for the Steelers whereas the Blaze were missing James Griffin and Ross Venus; Fulghum was also returning to the Skydome for the first time.
Sheffield were difficult to break down early as they played their now-customary tight road hockey. Defensively they make very few mistakes and they have the added bonus of having a very good netminder in John DeCaro. The first period was evenly fought, the Blaze probably had more of the attacking play but were being kept to low percentage shots on the outside. The second period was much of the same until the Blaze found themselves in penalty trouble and trying to kill a 5-on-3 penalty. Sheffield have one of the best powerplay units in the league and it wasn’t long until the inevitable happened and Fulghum scored for the Steelers to make it 1-0 Sheffield.
Both the fans and the organisation in Coventry have shown great spirit over the past seven days and the team replicated that on the ice fighting right back. With some persistent play around the net and good puck movement, Shea Guthrie eventually worked some space to finally break the Steelers defence and level the tie. They were then in the ascension for the remainder of the second period; only DeCaro stopped the Blaze running away from it.
It looked like the Blaze were going to seal the victory in the third period as the Steelers started to take more penalties but some squandered powerplay chances left the scores level. In fact, typical of Coventry’s season so far, it was the Steelers who regained the lead with a short-handed marker late in the third. Mike Ramsay led a 2-on-1 breakaway, with the pass covered he shot past Peter Hirsch impressively. Perhaps the most worrying thing for Coventry here is that they continue to give up odd-man rushes despite having the man advantage.
Sheffield added a late insurance goal as Jonathan Phillips squeaked one past a screened Hirsch, who was less than happy with the goal, beating up his water bottle as a result. The final score was 3-1, and Sheffield still has a good chance of qualifying.
Coventry should not be downbeat about the game. It was a good performance against arguably the best team in the league right now. On another day, they would have been able to score a few in the second period and could have easily won the game. The most important thing is that they battled for 60 minutes and worked hard every shift. Above all else, that is what Blaze fans require from their team. This performance will hopefully allow the club to build over the tough Christmas schedule.
Coming up – @ Fife Flyers, Tuesday 13th December; @ Nottingham Panthers, Saturday 17th December, vs. Edinburgh Capitals, Sunday 18th December.
