BLAZE head coach Danny Stewart says his side stepped up to the plate in their 3-2 defeat of Guildford Flames last Friday night.
Goals from John Curran, Andrew Johnston and Alex Forbes helped Coventry stay fifth in the Elite League, a place in front of their rivals, despite initially going behind in the encounter at the Skydome Arena.
Hailing the defensive contributions of his players, Stewart felt his side were good value for their 20th victory this term.
“I thought we played a really good hockey game,” he said.
“It wasn’t an ideal start, but from then I don’t think we gave too much from a defensive standpoint. I thought we were good all over.
“We were skating, won a lot of puck battles and managed the puck well.
“We had 75 points out of our line-up [due to Luke Ferrara and Ross Venus being on international duty], but when that happens you need players to step up and Curran and Forbes did for us scoring goals. I also thought David Broll was really good tonight.”
With two of their shining lights missing, Blaze fans were perhaps right in fearing the worst when Braylon Shmyr found the net for Guildford after just 35 seconds.
Curran alleviated those fears on 12.42 when levelling the scores following some incisive build-up play from teammates Dillon Eichstadt and Janne Laakkonen.
With less than four minutes of the middle period remaining, the hosts went in front for the first time when Johnston scored for the fifth game running against Guildford on 36.23.
Blaze finally had a two goal advantage when Forbes rounded off an impressive showing with a goal at 43.14, rendering a strike from the Flames’ Jordan Rowley at 50.14 as futile.
With that being said, Coventry netminder C.J Motte did have to stay alert to shut out the visitors with some late saves approaching the final seconds of play.
Blaze are on the road twice in as many days this weekend, first heading to Cardiff Ice Arena to face-off with Cardiff Devils on Saturday (7pm), followed by Sunday’s meeting with Glasgow Clan at Braehead Arena (5.30pm).
