Flames come back from two down for road win

Photo: Mark Ferris

Guildford Flames came back from two down to beat Manchester Storm and record their second win of the week with a 4-2 victory at the Storm Shelter on Friday night.

Gianluca Estevez put Storm ahead under five minutes into the game when he broke down the wing and beat Jake Kupsky short side at 4:53 for the only goal of the opening period. 5:21 into period tow, Tyler Hinam used Grant Hebert as a decoy before curling a shot high into Kupsky's net to put the Storm two ahead. 

Two goals in just over as many minutes around the halfway mark of the game brought the Flames level. Jack Jacome tipped Charlie Dodero's point shot past Evan Weninger to make it a one-goal game, while dived to poke a loose puck from a Lewis Hook shot over the line on the powerplay to level the game at 32:53.

Storm had a penalty shot to re-gain the lead but Kupsky came out on top, although that wasn't the end of the drama in the middle period. An incident involving Daniel Catenacci and Joe Morrow led to almost an entire line brawl at centre ice and the period called with 1:44 still left on the clock.

A number of penalties were handed out and it's likely that won't be the end of the story when DOPS reviews them following the game.

Back in the hockey game, Guildford went ahead on a delayed penalty with 11:01 left in the third - Ryan Tait's speed bringing the Flames into the zone, and Ethan Strang slotting home from the top of the crease. Strang added his second of the night with 2:27 left to put the Flames 4-2up, and that's how things ended.