COVENTRY BLAZE

'Coventry Blaze'
'League'	Elite Ice Hockey League
'Founded'	2000
'History'	'Solihull Blaze' 1996-2000 'Coventry Blaze' 2000-Present
'Arena'	SkyDome Arena
'Capacity'	3,000
'City'	Coventry United Kingdom
'Team Colours'	Blue and White
'Head coach'	Paul Thompson
'Owners'	Ice Cold Promotions Ltd
'Team Captain'	Sylvain Cloutier
'League Championships'	2004–05, 2006-07
'Championships'	2004-05
'Challenge Cups'	2004–05, 2006-07

'Coventry Blaze' are a British ice hockey team based in Coventry, England. They are the current Elite Ice Hockey League Champions, having clinched the title for the second time in three years on March 21, 2007.
Originally from the neighbouring town of Solihull, the Blaze rose quickly through the various leagues of British Ice Hockey. In 2000–01, in order to attract a new and larger fanbase, the Blaze made the decision to move to the 3,000 capacity Coventry Skydome.
They went on to become one of the more successful British National League (BNL) teams. In 2002–03, they won the league and playoff double, completing the playoffs unbeaten.

Contents

Elite League history

2003-2004

2004–2005

2005–2006

2006–2007

2007–2008

Club roster 07/08

Honours

Honoured players

External links

Elite League history

2003-2004

In the summer of 2003, Coventry joined with two other BNL sides, three former Superleague sides and two new sides in a brand new Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL).
The core of the triumphant BNL roster was retained, and joined by such notable players as, eventual player of the year, Steve O'Brien, Steve Gallace and Graham Schlender. Blaze enjoyed a terrific debut season in the top flight of British Ice Hockey, eventually finishing third in the League behind heavyweights Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers. They failed to qualify for the end of season playoffs after a poor run of form but, overall, the season had to be considered a success for a club of such limited experience.

2004–2005

In the summer of 2004, Paul Thompson undertook a massive re-building of the roster in a bid to improve upon the previous season. Out went club legends Steve Carpenter, Michael Tasker, Shaun Johnson, Hilton Ruggles and Mathias Soderstrom. The club's all time greatest player, Steve Chartrand, announced his retirement and Gallace and O' Brien also departed. In came Dan Carlson, Adam Calder, Doug Schueller, Pavol Mihalik, Neal Martin and Andre Payette. They were later joined by Wade Belak of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who became available when the NHL locked out its players whilst negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement.
Eric Beaudoin, then of the Florida Panthers, was also slated to join Blaze during the lockout, but was sent down to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL at the last minute. Instead, Thompson signed big forward Chris McNamara and the club never looked back!
Blaze claimed their first Elite League title on March 5 2005 following a 5-1 victory over the London Racers. They also won the 2005 Challenge Cup following an 11-5 aggregate victory over Cardiff Devils. On April 10 2005 the Blaze completed a Grand Slam of all three EIHL trophies with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Nottingham Panthers in the playoff final. Skipper Ashley Tait crowned a memorable season with the winning goal just over three minutes into the extra period.
Netminder Jody Lehman was voted to the EIHL All Star Team at the end of the season along with Dan Carlson, Adam Calder, Wade Belak and the overall League MVP, Neal Martin. In addition, Doug Schueller was voted to the British Ice Hockey Writers Association All Star Team and Tait made the British All Star Team.

2005–2006

2005-06 was always likely to be a season of consolidation for the Blaze. Wade Belak returned to the NHL and Calder and Carlson left for Sweden and Germany respectively. Coupled with the retirement of both Schlender and McNamara, the Blaze embarked upon the defence of their three titles with a radically changed roster.
Evan Cheverie was acquired from Long Beach Ice Dogs of the ECHL and joined by Barrie Moore, formerly of the Buffalo Sabres. Jeff Hutchins joined from Mississippi Sea Wolves and the retention of club heroes Ashley Tait and Joel Poirier kept hopes high that the club could repeat on the success of the previous year.
The high point of the season came in October 2005, when the club competed in the Continental Cup in Grenoble, eventually falling in their final game against the host team. Blaze began by defeating Herning Blue Fox of Denmark in a shootout and followed up with a win over the Amsterdam Tigers. Grenoble proved to be one step too far in the final game, as an energy sapping weekend came to a close.
Upon their return, the club was boosted when Dan Welch was snapped up from the Nottingham Panthers, and Calder returned from Sweden, but the season soon disintegrated as Blaze lost both the Challenge Cup Final, to arch rivals Cardiff Devils, and the final of the British Ice Hockey Cup, to Sheffield Steelers, on penalty shots. The League title also slipped away to the Belfast Giants.

2006–2007

After the trials and tribulations of attempting, and failing, to defend the Grand Slam, another major rebuild awaited the team in the summer of 2006.
Thompson made a positive start to the off season by acquiring hard hitting Canadian defenceman Reid Simonton from Herning Blue Fox, and re-signing Dan Carlson from EHC Munich to re-unite with Adam Calder. Hutchins departed for Belfast Giants and Cheverie and Welch joined Morzine Avoriaz Penguins in France.
Replacements arrived in the form of Danny Stewart from UHL side Danbury Trashers, and battle scarred AHL veteran Sylvain Cloutier. Cloutier had also iced with NHL side Chicago Blackhawks. Another former NHL player, Rumun Ndur joined Samy Nasreddine and the returning James Pease and Neal Martin in rounding out the defence.
Tait and Moore returned to the forward lines to give Blaze the experienced and solid look that they had sadly lacked the previous season.
A key signing was netminder Trevor Koenig, who had previously led Newcastle Vipers to the Playoff Championship. Thompson fended off several big money European offers to land his man and set the scene for an exciting season.
Blaze reeled in and overhauled early pacesetters Belfast Giants by playing with remarkable consistency over the League season, where their rivals faltered. The side qualified for the final of the Challenge Cup for the 3rd successive season and boasted far and away the best defence in the land, conceding far fewer goals than all of their Elite League counterparts.
March 14 2007 brought a setback, as the side lost in the final of the British Knockout Cup to Cardiff Devils. Blaze had perhaps had one eye on the major prize, which was clinched exactly one week later as Edinburgh Capitals were dismissed 5-1, with Adam Calder scoring the Championship winning goal.
On March 27, 2007, Blaze reclaimed the Challenge Cup, defeating the Sheffield Steelers 9-4 on aggregate over two games.
Leading just 4-3 from their home leg, Blaze turned on the style in the House of Steel, soaking up wave after wave of pressure and hitting Steelers on the break.
Samy Nasreddine steadied the nerves with a first period goal, whilst two powerplay strikes from Barrie Moore and a phenomenal performance in net from Trevor Koenig settled the tie.
Paul Thompson's team then went on to the quarter finals of the Elite League playoffs. They played 8th place Newcastle and trailed 1-0 after the 1st leg in Newcastle.
The entire Blaze organisation, and the fans, thought that this was a good result going into the return leg the night afterwards, but falling 3-0 down on the night and 4-0 down on aggregate seemed to shatter hopes of reaching the Finals weekend in Nottingham.
Coach Paul Thompson however felt differently and called a 30 seconds timeout in which he gave instructions for the Blaze team to get back in the game. A late strike from the blue line deflected off assistant captain, Cloutier's stick in the last 2 minutes of the 1st period put the game to 4-1 on aggregate, and the Blaze were back in the tie.
The 2nd period saw 2 more goals for the Blaze to level the game on the night, but they were still trailing 4-3 on aggregate to the Vipers.
Going into the 3rd period trailing by only the 1 goal, Rumun Ndur had a strike ruled out for a man in the crease, but this didn't stop Danny Stewart from firing in an unstoppable wrist shot to beat Ladislav Kudrna and to send the game into overtime.
It took only 50 seconds of OT for captain Ashley Tait to repeat an overtime goal against Kudrna in the playoffs to secure them the win and a place in the semi-finals. It also concluded one of the best comebacks that anyone had witnessed, not only at the Skydome, but in British Ice Hockey history.
The Coventry Blaze went on to play the Cardiff Devils in the semi finals of the playoffs and were hoping to get revenge for their Knockout Cup Final defeat earlier in the season.
The Blaze conceded 2 early goals which gave the impetus to the Devils.
Samy Nasreddine's 2nd period goal was enough to give the Blaze hope, but that didn't stop the Devils striking a third to beat Trevor Koenig between the pipes of the Coventry Blaze net.
With the score 3-1 going into the 3rd period, Rumun Ndur tucked away a goal to give the Blaze more hope, but it wasn't enough and the Cardiff Devils advanced to the finals of the Playoffs.

2007–2008

The off season started brightly for the Blaze with news that Danny Stewart had signed a new 2 year deal to remain at the Skydome. He will join the returning contracted players, Dan Carlson, Sylvain Cloutier, James Pease and Tom Watkins.
On May 9 it was announced that influential skipper, Ashley Tait, would be leaving the club, and the following day he signed for rivals Sheffield Steelers. Thompson countered the announcement by confirming that he had re-signed the League's finest Netminder, Trevor Koenig. Sensationally, later the same day, he added prolific blueliner Jonathan Weaver to the roster. Weaver is widely heralded as the finest British player in the game, and Thompson confirmed his intention to remain at the pinnacle of British Ice Hockey with the move.
In light of Tait's departure, AHL veteran, Sylvain Cloutier will captain the side for the upcoming season.
After spending a year with rivals Cardiff Devils, Russ Cowley will again be wearing the #17 shirt for the Blaze next season. Barrie Moore and Rumun Ndur will also be returning for another season at the Skydome.
In mid June the club announced that high scoring forward Curtis Huppe would be joining the squad for the forthcoming season. His 3 year tenure at rivals Belfast Giants ended controversially in February 2007, when coach Ed Courtenay de-registered Huppe to introduce himself into the playing line up. A previously deadly forward is now a deadly forward with a point to prove, and this should ensure that the Blaze benefit considerably from Huppe's presence on the roster.
Much awaited news was forthcoming in mid June, when it was announced that 3 time 1st team EIHL All Star, Neal Martin, had signed a new 2 year deal with the club.
Blaze completed their roster for the upcoming season in late July 07, with confirmation of the retention of Michael Tasker, Stephen Fone, Tom Pease and James Archer. Club favourite Mathias Söderström was confirmed as the clubs final import, after a three year absence from the side.

Club roster 07/08

Goaltenders
Number		Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
'31'		Stephen Fone	L	2006	Rotherham, England
'35'		Trevor Koenig	L	2006	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Defencemen
Number		Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
'6'		Neal Martin - 'A'	L	2004	Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
'14'		Jonathan Weaver	L	2007	Sunderland, England
'22'		James Pease	L	1996	Torquay, England
'71'		Tom Pease	R	2006	Solihull, England
'75'		Rumun Ndur	L	2006	Zaria, Nigeria
'77'		Mathias Söderström	L	2007	Hallstavik, Sweden

Forwards
Number		Player	Shoots	Position	Acquired	Place of Birth
'2'		James Archer	R	RW	2006	Sheffield, England
'7'		Joe Henry	R	RW	2005	Solihull, England
'9'		James Cooke	L	LW	2007	Leduc, Alberta, Canada
'17'		Russ Cowley	L	LW	2007	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
'18'		Barrie Moore	L	LW	2005	London, Ontario, Canada
'20'		Tom Watkins	R	C	2000	Durham, England
'25'		Adam Calder	R	RW	2005	Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada
'26'		Dan Carlson	L	C	2006	Edina, Minnesota, USA
'39'		Danny Stewart	L	LW	2006	Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
'81'		Michael Tasker	R	RW	2006	Sunderland, England
'83'		Sylvain Cloutier - 'C'	L	C	2006	Mont-Laurier, Quebec, Canada
'93'		Curtis Huppe	R	RW	2007	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Honours

★ 'English Division One North Champions' 1997–98 (as Solihull)

★ 'English National League Champions' 1997–98 (as Solihull)

★ 'English National League Play Off Champions' 1997–98 (as Solihull)

★ 'English Premier League Champions' 1998–99 (as Solihull)

★ 'English Premier League Play Off Champions' 1998–99 (as Solihull)

★ 'British National League Champions' 2002-03

★ 'British National League Play Off Champions' 2002-03

★ '' 2004–05, 2006-07

★ '' 2004–05, 2006-07

★ 'Elite Ice Hockey League Play Off Champions' 2004-05

★ 'Elite Ice Hockey League First Team All-Stars'

★
★ '2004-05' Jody Lehman, Neal Martin, Doug Schueller, Adam Calder

★
★ '2005-06' Neal Martin, Evan Cheverie

★
★ '2006-07' Trevor Koenig, Neal Martin, Adam Calder

★ 'Elite Ice Hockey League Second Team All-Stars'

★
★ '2003-04' Steve O'Brien, Steve Gallace

★
★ '2004-05' Wade Belak, Ashley Tait

★
★ '2006-07' Dan Carlson

Honoured players

★ - Jersey retired for services to the club.

★ - Jersey retired for services to British Ice Hockey.

External links

★ The Official Coventry Blaze website

★ Unofficial Coventry Blaze Forum

★ Latest Blaze news from BBC Coventry & Warwickshire