Flames return with Cup win

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After 566 days off, 4 unanswered 2nd period goals, and 7 across the night that included Flames firsts for Kyle Locke, Jamal Watson, Chris Gerrie, Levi Cable, and Mac Howlett helped the Flames return to play with a 7-4 Cup win over Coventry Blaze.

Blaze kicked it off early, just 76 seconds in, when Evan Bloodoff opened their account. A powerplay reply by Brett Ferguson at 3:19 had the home team level before a 13 minute scoring gap preceded Jake Bolton’s go ahead marker at 16:03. Blaze hit back quickly, though, sending the teams to break at pair each thanks to Luke Ferrara’s answer just 43 seconds later.

Just over 3 minutes after re-start, Kyle Locke nudged Spectrum’s men out in front for good and they doubled the difference at 28:59 through Jamal Watson. In the 35th minute Chris Gerrie extended the lead to 3 and inside the final 2 minutes of the frame, Levi Cable scored on the powerplay to have Flames in front 6-2 through 40 minutes.

Halfway through the 3rd, Mac Howlett extended further but a pair of Blaze powerplay strikes by Alex Marsh and John Curran at 52:58 and 55:35, respectively, pulled the final score back within the 3 goal margin.

“I am not sure any result could have taken away the excitement of all of us finally being able to get back to what we love to do,” explained Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon.

“You could feel it from a pretty full building that everyone was excited to be there and when we took the ice and the puck dropped, I am not sure it has ever been louder in Spectrum.”

“Putting the return to play achievement aside, I was very happy with what I saw from a club getting into game action for the first time, and for some of them it was game action for the first time in well over a year.”

“I thought we looked pretty together for a lot of the night. We were able to put some goals away before giving up a couple of late powerplays, but overall, I am not sure we could have hoped for any better from these guys in terms of getting started.”

“We will do it all again tomorrow night, and hopefully everyone will feel even better after getting a game under our belts.”