Another controversial refereeing decision saw Coventry Blaze lose another game when they had the chance of earning a good result, but the team still had a reasonable weekend on the road.

With 15 minutes to go Coventry Blaze were edging a game at rivals Fife Flyers on Saturday, leading 1-0, before an incident provoked outrage among the travelling army of fans.

Todd Dutiaume escaped a penalty despite apparently spearing and fighting Coventry players, while the Blaze were made to suffer by having Marc Twaite and Stephen Cooper thrown out of the game.

While the Blaze were short-handed Dutiaume scored a hat-trick, and Kelham’s early goal for Coventry was over-turned as Fife ran out 4-1 winners.

Milton Keynes Kings have made a complaint about the same referee, Allan Craig, showing bias to Fife last week.

The game attracted the biggest crowd of the season in the BNL 2,909, and put Fife above Coventry in the race for a good play-off spot.

Period scores : 0-0/0-1/4-0

Penalty minutes : 8-83

Shots on goal : 33-38

Attendance : 2909

Referee : Allan Craig

Flyers : Dutiaume 2+2; Monteith 1+1; Morris 1+0; S.King 0+1; Russell 0+1.  Net - Murphy 38/1

Blaze : Kelham 1+0; Cooper 0+1; Dumas 0+1.  Net - Hollyhead 33/4

Following the disappointment north of the border, Coventry regained third place with a 5-2 victory at Hull last night.

Stephen Cooper lost two teeth and was ejected from the game against his former club after a dust-up with Tommy Plommer.

Tom Watkins opened the scoring, only for Anthony Johnson to equalise for the home side four minutes later on a powerplay.

Kelham, Samuellson and Shaun Johnson put the Blaze in front with a goal glut in the early portion of the second period, but Hull managed to hang on and prevent a repeat on Thursday’s rout.

Kelham scored another in the third, while Anthony Johnson scored a consolation goal to make it 5-2.

Period scores : 1-1/0-3/1-1

Penalty minutes : 49-49

Shots on goal : 24-38

Attendance : 1012

Referee : Drew Fraser

Thunder : A.Johnson 1+1; Payne 1+1; Shudra 0+1.  Net - Noble 38/5

Blaze : Kelham 2+0; Johnson 1+1; Watkins 1+1; Samuelsson 1+0; Shewan 0+2; Twaite 0+2; Dumas 0+1; Knights 0+1.  Net - Hollyhead 24/2