Retro Night in Manchester saw a Friday win for the hosts, who ran out comfortable 5-1 winners at a crowded Storm Shelter.
Storm, donning their throwback jerseys, took a 1-0 lead through the opening period after Brady Gilmour scored 9:53 into the game, tapping home from close range after a loose puck fell into the crease.
“We needed to come out and set the tone right away and play the full 60 minutes,” began Storm captain Chase Harrison. “Obviously we have them back-to-back days so we’re kind of looking at it as a 120-minute game and we really needed to set the tone tonight – I think we did that.”
The second period was dominated by Storm, although Jarrett Fiske initially kept the visitors in the game with a number of saves to halt the home side’s momentum. That resistance ended when a Tyler Hinam shot slipped under his blocker to double Manchester’s lead. Storm struck again just 11 seconds later when Nick Welsh fired home from the slot to make it 3-0.
“That’s a tough one. I thought we had a pretty good first period,” said Stars’ Brad Schoonbaert. “We played hard, and then in the second Manchester upped their game a level, and we just didn’t really match it. We got sloppy with the puck and they made us pay. They got three goals in about five minutes there and then that was the game. Just a lot of costly mistakes.”
Loren Ulett made it 4-0 later in the period with a low shot from the point that beat Fiske through traffic. Dundee were not going to go down quietly, however, and a 5-on-3 opportunity gave them the chance to respond. Just seconds after the first penalty expired, Stars broke Drew DeRidder’s shutout to make it 4-1 with 15 seconds remaining in the period.
“Dundee kind of had a push back there and we maybe kind of fell back a little bit,” continued Harrison. “So maybe just tomorrow we work on keeping control of the game and pushing the pace for the full 60 and not sitting back at all.”
Gilmour bookended the scoring with the game’s final goal at 53:59.
“I thought we battled hard for most of the game. Just our puck management has kind of been the story of the season as, for whatever reason, we’re pretty stubborn and don’t like to play simple a lot of nights, and it costs us a lot of time. We give up a lot of odd-man rushes and it’s frustrating. So hopefully tomorrow we can clean up our puck decisions and come up with a strong effort,” concluded Schoonbaert.
Photo: Mark Ferris
