Storm top Blaze for second time in 72 hours

Photo: Mark Ferris

Manchester Storm beat Coventry Blaze for the second time in three nights and cut the gap on the playoff places back to three points thanks to a 4-1 win over Coventry on Friday night.

Storm struck late in each of the first two periods to put themselves two ahead after 40 minutes.

In period one, it was Cam Critchlow who saw his speculative shot, which seemed to deflect off a defenseman's face, go past CJ Motte 37 seconds before the buzzer. 

The hosts could have doubled their lead early in period two with David Clements sitting for tripping, but didn't trouble Motte with anything to bring him into drastic action. With the clock winding down in the second, a Storm clearance from their own zone looked to be going for icing - however, a weird bounce off the boards saw the puck not only fail to cross the goal line, but bounce straight into the path of Frankie Melton who beat Motte low to double the Storm's lead at 39:08.

Off a goalmouth scramble, Luke Ferrara brought the Blaze back to within one 2:48 into period three.

With 8:24 played, Curtis Hamilton had an excellent chance in front to put Storm back two ahead but was well denied by Motte who was quick to close down the angle.

Scott Simmonds made sure Storm would take the points with 3:59 left in the game when he took the puck in the neutral zone, toe-dragged past a defenseman as he entered the zone, and picked out the top corner past CJ Motte.

Adam Brady beat Motte five-hole in close to put some gloss on the final scorelines with his 22xnd of the season with just over three minutes to play.