Three goals in the space of eight third-period minutes looked to have earned Coventry Blaze a road win in Dundee, only for Philippe Sanche to tie the game on his return to the Stars and Zach Tsekos to win it for the hosts in overtime.
“I think we played a solid 40 minutes and then kind of let it get away a little bit when we got the two-goal lead in the third, but we found away to dig deep and get a huge goal at the end,” said Sanche, who tied the game late on.
An energetic first period in Dundee saw both the Stars and Blaze come out of the gate strong, with chances early on both ends of the ice.
Coventry thought they had taken an early lead 01:55 into the game, but after video review it was determined that Stars’ netminder Richard Sabol had managed to keep the puck out of his goal through a crucial post-to-post save to deny the visitors.
It seemed the score would remain 0-0 heading into the first intermission, however Keanu Yamamoto scored his fourth of the season late in the first to send the home team ahead. After catching the Blaze on a bad change, Yamamoto skated the puck into the offensive zone and fired a shot from the right wing, deflecting off the skate of a Blaze defender and past Mat Robson at 19:39.
Coventry entered the second period looking for an equaliser, they came close on numerous occasions however Sabol was sharp and denied everything thrown his way.
Dundee doubled their lead just over the halfway mark, once again benefiting from lucky deflection off of a Blaze player. This time it was Jake Elmer who netted the Stars’ second at 35:05. The Canadian set the puck towards the net which took a bounce off Robson’s stick and into his net, sending the home side 2-0 going into the final period.
Alessio Luciani got the Blaze on the board 97 seconds into period three with a shot that beat Sabol high, and by 44:11 they were just level thanks to Archie Hazeldine’s shot from the point that beat Sabol glove side.
Nick Seitz completed the turnaround at 49:30 when a rebound off a Grayson Constable shot landing on his stick at the top of the crease.
However, Dundee weren’t done. With 3:13 to play, neat passing involving Alex Tonge and Ben O’Connor found Philippe Sanche in front for a goal on his return to the Stars to tie the game.
“We got away a little bit, we kind of sat on our heels so it was all about putting pucks deep, going into the corners, winning battles and getting back to our game plan,” said Sanche of the third period. “We started doing that right away, obviously it’s nice to get that tying goal and score again in Dundee.”
A late Delay of Game penalty on the Stars set up the Blaze with a powerplay for the final 65 seconds, but the hosts held out and both teams took a point.
A couple of penalties in overtime saw the game go from 4-on-4 to 4-on-3 in the early stages. With the Stars shorthanded, a lofted pass from Drydn Dow landed perfectly for the on-rushing Tsekos to take and beat Robson to win it in overtime for the hosts!
On his return to Dundee, Sanche added: “It’s been a lot of fun, every practice guys are having fun. They’re coming off a really good stretch here so you’re excited to come to the rink, work with these guys and get to know them. It’s been an exciting first week and a half, and I was thrilled to get on the ice in front of the fans.”
Photo: Derek Black