Manchester Storm surrendered a two-goal lead, then came back from two down with a buzzer-beater before winning in a shootout in a wild game against Fife Flyers in Kirkcaldy.
“Well, we don’t make it easy on ourselves, that’s for sure,” began Storm’s Gary Haden. “We had a good road 40 minutes after a long travel day, then took some penalties and let them back into the game. Fife are a good team and they capitalised on our mistakes.”
Storm made the stronger start and were ahead just 2:18 in when Nick Welsh scored off a neat give-and-go with Haden. An incident immediately after the goal involving Garret Hunt and Dante Hannoun saw the Flyers’ captain ejected for a sucker punch, handing Storm a five-minute powerplay. Dennis Busby scored the only goal of the advantage as Fife survived the extended kill with minimal damage. Hannoun did not return for the remainder of the game.
Cade Neilson created the Flyers’ best chance of the opening period with a disguised pass when a shot seemed likely, but Drew DeRidder made a solid save.
Keaton Jameson almost pulled one back six minutes into the second, but DeRidder got just enough on his breakaway attempt. Gino Finoro also sent a shot narrowly over when he looked set to score.
Early in the third, Shane Owen denied Tyler Hinam from point-blank range to keep the Flyers within two. Milan Lucic then brought Fife back into the game, winning the puck along the boards before firing home off a perfect Justin Ducharme feed with just over 13 minutes to play.
With 6:08 remaining, Jameson and Anton Karlsson combined to set up Karlsson for a backhand finish to tie the game. Storm nearly responded immediately, but Brandon Cutler was denied by Owen on a breakaway.
Ethan Somoza’s precise pass found Ian Scheid driving the net at 56:54 to give the Flyers their first lead of the night. Finoro then appeared to seal it with an empty-net goal.
“We were down 2-0 and then we had the game in our own hands, but we threw it away,” admitted Flyers’ Anton Karlsson. “When you’re up by two you need to play a solid game, and we didn’t do that.”
Haden replied just 13 seconds later, before Storm forced the puck over the line with 0.3 seconds remaining to tie the game. The goal was confirmed after video review.
“When they scored that empty-net goal we could have folded, but we didn’t,” explained Haden. “We got that quick one and then tied it right down to the wire. It feels really good to come out with the two points.”
Neither side found a winner in overtime, and Storm prevailed in the shootout with three goals to Fife’s one to take the extra point.
Photo: Flyers Images
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