Flames banked a table point after clawing back from 3-1 down, but in the end overtime and 5 penalty shooters from each side were needed to determine a winner where Manchester Storm scored on the final tiebreaker to deliver a 4-3 defeat to the visiting Flames.
A Samuel Tremblay brace a little more than 3 minutes apart in the back half of the opening frame set Storm to a 2-0 lead. Marcus Tesink cut the deficit in half at 18:04, but a Tyler Hinam powerplay marker just 8 seconds from period time closed the 1st with the home team ahead 3-1.
Flames replied with the only goal of the middle set by Bradley Lalonde at 30:11, but 3 straight Flames powerplays near the end of the 2nd were not successful in bringing the visitors fully even before the 3rd.
Storm had a similar opportunity to put the game away inside the last 10 minutes with back to back powerplays of their own, but consecutive penalty kill successes by Spectrum’s men led straight to the equalizer off the stick of Lewis Hook at 53:52. That completed the scoring through regulation and overtime before Storm bagged 3 penalties, including Joe Morrow’s winner, to overcome penalty goals by Peter Crinella and Matt Alvaro.
Taz Burman for Flames and Alex Oldale for Storm each turned away 47 of the 50 shots they faced.
“We struggled in that first period, and it was costly in terms of the deficit, but we managed to get through it and ultimately pull a point from the game,” said Paul Dixon.
“The one thing that we will look back on is probably the 3 powerplays in a row late in the 2nd period where we didn’t convert any of them. Those were opportunities for us to help ourselves, and we have to be able to take advantage in those situations where it can make the difference between winning and losing.”
“Having said that, from the 2nd period onwards, we created a lot more chances and prevented a lot more throughout the rest of the game so a lot of credit for our guys staying with it and making sure the game did not get away from us after falling behind. On top of that we were in a tough spot late killing a couple of their powerplays and we did a great job of making sure we had a chance to get it to overtime.”
“We must have hit a post 3 or 4 times in the last couple of minutes of regulation and overtime where we had a lot of possession and pressure but just couldn’t find one to put us on the winning side of the ledger. We get another crack at them on home ice tomorrow and I am sure we will be ready to put in a solid effort.”
