Storm earn first cup win with five-goal second period

Photo: Mark Ferris

The Manchester Storm earned their first win of the Premier Sports Challenge Cup season in large part thanks to a five-goal second period as they powered past the Nottingham Panthers 7-3.

The game was notable for Storm's Harry Gulliver and Panthers' Morgan Clarke-Pizzo both scoring their first professional goals, plus a professional debut for Archie Hazeldine on the Storm's defense.

The Panthers led with the only goal of period one - JC Brassard taking a loose puck in the slot and wristing past James Downie with 9:48 played. 

That lead held until just after the 27-minute mark when a surge of Storm goals saw them hit five in just over as many minutes.

Gulliver, in his first season with the Storm after impressing during the Elite Series, took a Jared Vanwormer pass on the backhand spin and slotted past Will Kerlin to level it at 27:10, with Frankie Melton's shot 30 seconds later creeping through Kerlin to put Storm ahead.

Linden Springer then dangled and let fly from just inside the attacking zone to make it 3-1 at 29:38, before Curtis Hamilton got the hosts' fourth of the game at 30:33. Hamilton capped the Storm's goal-fest on the powerplay at 32:46 to give his team a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Tyson Fawcett added a sixth 4:02 into the final period, with Brassard cutting the deficit back to four goals two minutes later. Fawcett struck again, though, shorthanded to extend the Storm's lead to 7-2 with 10 minutes to play. 

With 70 seconds left on the clock, Morgan Clarke-Pizzo nicely sniped past Downie from the slot get the Panthers' third of the night.

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