First home win puts Storm joint top of league

Photo: Mark Ferris

Manchester Storm logged their first home win since March 2023 with a hard-fought two-goal victory over Dundee Stars in Altrincham.

Period one was a fast, end-to-end contest after which the teams came out all square. Dundee took an early lead, going ahead at 5:35 when Drydn Dow's shot went through a crowd of players to beat Evan Weninger - it may have been tipped by Jonathan McBean on the way through. Storm were level with 2:03 left in the period thanks to Dallas Ehrhardt's quick release wrist shot. CJ Garcia's slash with one second remaining saw the Stars awarded a penalty shot which Tommy Parrottino couldn't convert.

The sides came out of period two all square with another goal each over the 20 minutes. Stephen Johnson slotted home a rebound to a Zach Sullivan shot that Kevin Carr couldn't hold to put Storm ahead at 31:03, but Anthony Rinaldi pegged them back 65 seconds later in close. The Stars also had a goal washed out with 1:06 left in the period for goaltender interference which Marc LeFebvre opted not to challenged.

An Andreas Heier slapshot with 11:11 to play in the final period would turn out to be the game winenr as he crashed the puck past Carr off a Sanerti Haarala pass. The hosts broke 2-on-1 shorthanded with just over six minutes to play where Will Merchant set up Johnson for his second of the night to make the game safe.

The win took the Storm to joint-top of the Elite League standings with them and Sheffield Steelers both having an unbeaten start from two games played each.