New Season
The hockey season is back, and you can follow it all with us right here on BIH.
Stats Centre
We are working on an archive of matches, stats and players from BIH in the past few years.
Venus on fire for Blaze
Photograph of Coventry's Greg Owen scoring against the Newcastle Vipers last night copyright of Mark Tredgold: www.marktredgold.com
Teenage forward Ross Venus scored his first professional goal as Coventry Blaze kick-started their Elite League campaign with a 6-3 victory over Newcastle Vipers at the Skydome.
Brian Lee (hamstring) joined fellow injured defencemen Jonathan Weaver and Matt Soderstrom on the sidelines while Brad Cruikshank was still banned and Robert Farmer and Tom Murdy were on Great Britain Under-20 duty.
But Jason Robinson, who received stitches to a gashed eye during the 2-0 Challenge Cup win at Hull Stingrays last night, was able to play.
American forward Luke Fulghum fired Coventry ahead after just 64 seconds with his second goal in as many games.
But Blaze really turned on the style in the second period as they hit Vipers with five unanswered goals with Venus, 16, celebrating his maiden marker before Owen Fussey grabbed his first goal in six games.
Three goals inside 169 seconds then put Blaze out of sight with Greg Owen netting twice, sandwiching a marker from stand-in captain Dan Carlson.
However, Blaze ran into penalty trouble at the start of the third period – taking five minors inside eight minutes – and Vipers capitalised with Mike Prpich, Dale Mahovsky and Dean Holland scoring on the powerplay.
But Coventry registered their first league win in four games which moved them 15 points behind leaders Belfast Giants, although they have five games in hand.
Coach Paul Thompson said: “It was a tight first period but we took it to them in the second. We ran into a bit of penalty trouble in the third but we did enough to win.
“For 70% of this team it was their third game in four nights so it was a pleasing win.
“We have not been scoring a lot of goals but so get six – and five in one period – will boost our confidence and it was good to see Fulghum and Fussey scoring again. They are our big guns and we need goals from them.”
Meanwhile, Blaze youngsters Robert Farmer and Tom Murdy helped Great Britain Under-20s win a bronze medal in their World Championship Division One Group A campaign in Belarus.
Farmer posted three assists in the 3-1 win over Japan to secure third place but Murdy was unable to see any ice time with coach Peter Russell playing Sheffield Steeldogs goaltender Ben Bowns in all five games.
Thompson, also the senior GB coach, was full of praise for the team and added: “It is an outstanding achievement and I am very proud of them.
“Everyone was talking about relegation so full credit to the whole coaching staff, management and players. They went over there with a young, inexperience team and it bodes very well for the programme. It was a fantastic effort.”
blog comments powered by Disqus0-3 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
||
| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
||
| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
5-8 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
- No Elite League for Vipers in 2011/12
- Holland looking for back to back wins
- Effinger has no regrets
- Hartmanis wants wins for fans
- Longmuir looking to finish in style
