Manchester Storm and Coventry Blaze produced drama and ten goals at the Storm Shelter, with the home side coming up with a win late on to take a win on opening inght of the new seaason.
“Anytime you get the honour of wearing the ‘C’ it means a lot, and I’m going to do my best to lead this team,” said Chase Harrison, who was named Storm captain ahead of their first game of the season. “The guys make it easy on me and to get the win here means a lot to set us off.”
The match began with Storm using their home advantage to put sustained pressure on the visitors, eventually earning the first powerplay of the game. Just moments after the advantage began, Blaze signing Colton Saucerman took a tripping minor to give the home team a 5-on-3. This was swiftly converted by a beautiful one-timer from the top of the circles by Brandon Cutler for the first goal of the season just six minutes in.
The Blaze had one of their biggest chances with a breakaway opportunity that was denied thanks to a terrific backcheck. Manchester then extended their lead to 2–0 on a 4-on-2 chance, with Brady Gilmour getting the final touch. Forty-eight seconds later, Tyler Hinam made it three, prompting Blaze Head Coach Kevin Moore to call a timeout.
Coventry ended the period on a high, capitalising on a poor Storm turnover that resulted in a 2-on-1 chance converted by Alessio Luciani.
The high-scoring affair paused for the first half of the second period, albeit not without chances. The deadlock was broken when Storm’s lethal powerplay struck again through Joseph Nardi at 27:37 to go 4–1 up.
“Since the beginning of camp we’ve put a lot of work into our special teams,” continued Harrison. “They looked really good tonight and translated into some big goals for us.”
However, the Blaze battled back to within one thanks to powerplay goals of their own – William Boyson and Colton Saucerman both netting before the period was out to pull the score back to 4–3.
Coventry’s comeback was complete 7:40 into the third as Elijiah Barriga scored his first for his new team, but this game was not done yet.
With around four and a half minutes to go, Loren Ulett’s shot from the circle beat Mat Robson to put the hosts back ahead – and that turned out to be the game-winner, with Gary Haden adding an empty-net goal with 89 seconds to play.
Photo: Mark Ferris
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