Tonight: Flames and Storm hoping for bounce-back

Photo: Mark Ferris

Manchester Storm and Guildford Flames meet in Altrincham for the second time this season with both teams looking for a bounce-back after a disappointing weekend last time out.

Storm have lost their last four games straight since beating Coventry on 19 November. Ryan Finnerty's team lost late on in Dundee last weekend before going down 5-1 at home to Glasgow, a game in which they outshot their opponents 52-22. Injury reserve goalie Jason Bacashihua is at 88.28% since joining the team last month, and they'll need him to start getting above 90% if they're to reverse their run of defeats.

Guildford went top of the Premier Sports Elite League table midweek last week with a win over Glasgow, but hit the buffers somewhat when the weekend came. They were shutout in Fife before going down 3-1 to Sheffield on Sunday night to end the weekend in third. There is, however, little cause for concern in Surrey - the Flames have the league's third-best points percentage through 14 games, third-best powerplay and top penalty kill. Ian Watters is also the third-top goal-scorers in the league overall.

Guildford ran out 6-2 winners when these sides met on Premier Sports in early November and have won all of their last four trips to the Storm Storm Shelter.