An early 2nd period powerplay goal by Peter Crinella was all the offence the visitors could generate and the lead it created was short lived before 4 unanswered the rest of the way lifted Manchester Storm to a 4-1 home ice win over the Flames.
A scoreless opening frame was closed out by netminder Adam Long who took his first action this season, icing about 3 minutes ahead of Taz Burman’s return near the start of the 2nd after an equipment repair.
In that 2nd, Crinella set Flames to a lead with the extra skater at 22:43, but a pair of replies before the halfway mark by Johnny Corneil and Austin Farley had Storm holding a single goal margin. Inside the final minute, Burman again left the game in favour of Long, but this time the home team immediately bagged their 3rd through Joe Morrow with just 16 seconds on the period clock.
With Burman back in place to begin the final frame, Flames killed a couple of penalties before a late powerplay represented their last best chance to get back in it, but they couldn’t capitalise and an ensuing Storm empty netter by Loren Ulett with 7 seconds remaining completed the final count.
For Flames, Taz Burman played 56 minutes and made 29 saves on 31 shots; Adam Long iced 3 minutes and was 5 of 6. Storm’s Evan Weninger went 40 for 41.
“We are certainly in a rut right now, that’s for certain,” said Paul Dixon.
“It’s tough sledding and we have to work our way out of this. I thought tonight we were actually better as the game went longer, but we are struggling to put away our better opportunities. Once you get behind it is always more of an uphill battle with more pressure to score which in itself does not make scoring easier.”
“It has been a while since we scored more than 2 goals in a game, and you just cannot win many games when you are down around the 1-2 goal mark.”
“We are right back at it tomorrow, and I know the guys will start looking ahead here to see if we can try and find more of an offensive spark during Cardiff’s visit.”
