A couple of 2nd period Manchester Storm goals against no reply put them in a lead they would hold the rest of the way during a 3-1 win over the visiting Flames.
After the clubs had a nearly even split of 23 shots through the first with no scoring, Storm got on the board with an unanswered pair in the 2nd from Joe Morrow at 31:57 and Tyler Hinam 64 seconds from period time.
In the 3rd, and inside the last 2 minutes, the visitors brought Jake Kupsky to the bench for an extra skater where Brett Ferguson was able to cut the deficit just over a minute from close. Just after re-start Kupsky returned to the bench again for the attacking advantage but this time it was Storm who were able to close it out with a long range empty netter which was Hinam’s 2nd of the evening.
Kupsky faced 22 shots and made 20 saves while David Tendeck turned away 25 of 26.
“Compared to how we were last weekend against Nottingham, it was disappointing to not follow up with similar execution,” said Paul Dixon.
“It is a much different kind of game because of the smaller ice pad, so you have to execute differently and make certain decisions you may not make on a bigger surface, but we were not able to do that and we are all disappointed with the eventual outcome.”
“Saturday night we have Glasgow coming to us so we certainly want to get ourselves ready for the playoffs the following weekend by having a solid game and collecting the points so we look forward to meeting them tomorrow night.”
