On the road at Manchester, the home team raced out to a 3 goal lead and continued to add more as the night went on as the Storm blasted the Flames by an 8-1 count to open the post Christmas schedule.
Ryan Barrow opened Storm’s account at 9:13. Zac Hermann doubled their advantage at 14:29 and Anthony Deluca added yet another just 75 seconds after that to have Storm in full control up by 3 at the break.
Barrow’s 2nd on a powerplay at 27:50 extended their advantage to 4, and a brace from Jesper Ohrvall in the frame’s last 6 minutes had storm up by the same number when the 3rd period began.
A 47th minute Ryan Tait strike got the visitors on the board and ensured there would be no shutout, but Storm added an exclamation point to the win when Scott Simmonds bagged their 7th in the 55th minute and Deluca added another with a penalty shot success shortly thereafter.
Flames netminder Eamon McAdam had 23 saves on 31 shots while Jeremy Brodeur made 50 stops on 51 attempts.
“That’s certainly not the way we were hoping to resume to get the post Christmas schedule started,” said Paul Dixon.
“Manchester was sharp in the offensive zone and they took advantage of some turnovers to make the most of a smaller ice surface that magnifies some of the transitional plays that cost us goals.”
“We are fully aware that we need to clean some of that stuff up for Tuesday night, but it is a probably a game that is best just erased from our memories and come out fresh tomorrow night and do this again, trying for a better standard and hope for a much better result.”
“We have had a lot of ups during this season, and this is a down that is inevitable from time to time so now it is up to us to roll away from it and get set for another try coming right up.”
