Storm extend winning streak to three games

Photo: Mark Ferris

Manchester Storm made it three straight wins, and earned their fourth in five games, with a commanding six-goal home victory over Nottingham Panthers on Saturday afternoon.

The opening period was looking like it would end goalless until Storm found the net 22 seconds before the buzzer. Cole Carter was sitting a hooking minor but that led to Scott Simmonds chasing down a puck chipped into the neutral zone, winning the race, and beating Jack Berry to score shorthanded.

38 seconds into period two, Ryan Barrow had the smart finish after the Panthers failed to clear their lines, set up by a spinning pass from Jesper Ohrvall. Simmonds added his second of the game when he followed up a rebound from Ohrvall's shot and fired home from the slot at 35:29. 

Any vague hopes of a Panthers comeback were extinguished when Barrow converted on the powerplay 2:59 into the third period after nice set-up play from Anthony DeLuca and Ohrvall. Dallas Ehrhardt made it five on the powerplay just shy of six minutes later, while Brett Welychka ruined Jeremy Brodeur's shutout hoped with 9:01 left to play. Ehrhardt shot through a screen as the Storm worked the puck well on a 5-on-3 advantage at 54:44 to become the Storm's third player with two goals on the night, before a nice drag from Barrow created the space for him to set up Michael Korol for the game's final goal with 2:27 to go.