Storm fight back from two down, win in shootout
Photo: James Assinder
Manchester Storm came back from 3-1 down in the final period and then beat league leaders Cardiff Devils in a shootout to pick up their third point of the weekend.
A sell-out crowd at the Vindico Arena saw the Devils fly out of the blocks. The hosts were immediately on a powerplay after Ryan Hughes received a 2-minute minor for tripping, but the puck stayed out.
The opening goal came just shy of the five-minute mark through Josh MacDonald finishing on a rebound after a give-and-go with Hunter Shinkaruk.
Storm hung around in the game, however, with Evan Weninger keeping them just one behind until Gianluca Estevez put the puck home from close range after Taz Burman had stopped Jake Durflinger's initial shot.
Andrew MacWilliam put the Devils back ahead with 1:46 left in the opening period after Weninger had initially denied the Devils on a two-on-one rush. Reid Duke made it 3-1 with 38 seconds remaining to put the Devils in control.
"I was pretty upset about the third goal that slipped out of my glove, and that could have been a turning point or you can forget about it and get going again," said Weninger. "It was good in the intermission to come in a and reset and go back out again, make some saves in the second that got my confidence back which I was able to ride for the rest of the game.
"We had to clean up some things between periods, getting caught trying to make passes we shouldn’t have. We maybe expected a bit of a sluggish start but we played better in the second period."
An early holding call on Jarrod Gourley offered Alexis D’Aoust the opportunity to find Manchester’s second goal of the night, which he found just eight seconds into the powerplay to bring the game back to 3-2 at 25:56. A back-and-forth period saw Storm take more control of the game than previously, as they maintained more puck control and created opportunities that Burman did well to keep out.
Storm were dangerous in the third period, but the Devils had several chances to put the result beyond doubt which they didn't take. Inside the final two minutes, MacWilliam lost his helmet but put it back on and continued his shift instead of leaving the ice immediately and was assessed a penalty for doing so. Playing with the empty net, Storm took just 10 seconds to set up Craig Martin at the far post to tie the game on the resulting powerplay.
"To get that one at the end there, that was massive, that brings you up! I’ve been on the other side of those where you have a goal go against you in the final minute but to pull the goalie and then get that one was huge for our team. We rode that momentum going into overtime."
Both sides took a deserved point with the game going to overtime, and how neither took the extra one in the bonus period is anyone's guess. No less than five odd-man rushes pulled both Burman and Weininger into excellent stops to send the game to a shootout.
Joe Morrow's snipe put the Storm ahead in round four, and when Cole Sanford missed it was Storm who took the well-deserved win.
