Battling Blaze grind out results

Danny Stewart scored the winner against Manchester

Coventry Blaze moved up to second place in the Elite League after grinding out two victories at the weekend.

Blaze scored twice in the last 23 seconds of regulation time as they beat Manchester Phoenix at the Skydome on Saturday night.

Danny Stewart netted in the first minute of overtime to secure a 7-6 win.

Coventry leap-frogged Midlands rivals Nottingham Panthers on Sunday, winning 3-1 despite going a goal down in the opening period.

Paul Thompson's side have 55 points from their 36 matches and despite trailing leaders Sheffield Steelers by 10 points they do have three games in hand.

But it could have been a different story had the defending champions not battled back in such dramatic style at home to Manchester.

The visitors raced in to a two-goal lead thanks to power-play strikes by David Beauregard and Luke Fulgham.

Carlyle Lewis pulled one back for Coventry before the end of the opening period only to see Manchester lead 4-1 with two quick goals in the second from Tony Hand and Lucas Burnett.

Blaze responded through Sylvain Deschatelets and Russ Cowley but Alex Dunn ensured Phoenix had a two-goal cushion going in the final period.

Erik Hjalmarsson scored his first two goals for Blaze

Hand opened up a three-goal lead before Adam Calder netted with 10 minutes of regulation time left on the clock.

Coach Paul Thompson took off his net-minder JF Perras as Blaze completed a remarkable comeback in the final minute.

Erik Hjalmarsson scored his first for the club before Deschatelets sent the game into overtime with just seven seconds remaining.

It only took Coventry 45 seconds of additional time to get the winner courtesy of Stewart.

The following day goals from Deschatelets, Hjalmarsson and Stewart were enough for Blaze to see off the challenge of Nottingham after Matt Myers had given Panthers an early lead.