Flames open Challenge weekend with a win

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A trip to Coventry Blaze on Saturday night served as the challenge opener to the 2019-2020 schedule and Spectrum’s men began the rust removal with a 3-0 road win.

13 minutes in, on 5 on 3 a powerplay, Kruise Reddick opened the Flames account and John Dunbar followed up about 4 minutes from period close to send Surrey’s men to break ahead by the pair.

Seconds into the middle frame a catastrophic chain of puck management events for Blaze gave Ian Watters a relatively easy strike to set the visitors to a 3-goal spread that turned out to be the final goal of the contest.

Start to finish, both teams spent extensive time in the penalty box, and Travis Fullerton recorded the shut out in the win.

“The score is never really a relevant factor in these games when you are just trying to give opportunities for everyone to get their feet under them, and for the most part we were able to do that,” said Head Coach Paul Dixon.

“I think both teams probably felt like we took too many penalties for any game, let alone a challenge match, but on the other hand it was a good chance to get some guys a look on the powerplay and the penalty kill.”

“We have only been on the ice for 8 practices this week in the lead up and most of our guys are probably just getting over the jet lag stage from recent overseas arrival so overall it was a successful evening and we are all looking forward to getting a run out on home ice Sunday in our final challenge match.”