British players Mike Hammond, Cole Shudra and Sam Duggan were on target for Coventry Blaze as they beat Manchester Storm 4-3 in the Elite Series.
Blaze went ahead when Great Britain forward Hammond scored his third goal of the tournament (3:55), while former GB junior Shudra made it 2-0 at 8:58, with David Clements getting an assist.
Jacob Lundell Noer reduced the deficit for Manchester on the powerplay (28:12), but Hammond assisted on Tristan Keck’s goal with a man advantage (34:54) as Coventry regained their two-goal advantage.
Sam Duggan made it 4-1 – assisted by Ivan Antonov and Alex Forbes – at 48:55, before Storm mounted a mini-comeback.
GB defencemen Dallas Ehrhardt scored Manchester’s second at 50:06 (powerplay) and Maxime Fortier netted at 58:48, but the comeback proved in vain.
Four teams – Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers – are competing in the 2021 Elite Series at the National Ice Centre.
The event has been organised under the government’s Elite Sport Guidance, with regular testing and a full covid-19 protocol in place.
The tournament is forming part of Great Britain’s preparations for the upcoming World Championship in Latvia.
All games are available to watch on a live stream – click here for more details and to purchase the webcasts.
Photo credit: Mark Ferriss.