Honours even in Manchester Storm double-header with Coventry Blaze

Linden Springer
Manchester Storm’s enforcer Linden Springer

Manchester Storm experienced the highs and lows of the Elite League over the weekend.

On Saturday evening Storm raced into a 3-0 first period lead against Coventry Blaze in Altrincham and ran out 5-2 winners in front of another big crowd.

Rob Linsmayer opened the scoring for Storm before Evan Richardson doubled the lead.

Linsmayer added a third before Coventry mounted a spirited comeback and closed the gap to 3-2.

Riley Stadel grabbed Storm’s fourth goal before fans favourite Luke Moffatt wrapped up the win late on in the game.

Storm’s enforcer Linden Springer was in the thick of things again when he went one-on-one with Justin Hache.

Springer is emerging as the man you don’t mess with and the crowd loved it as he gave as good as he got against Hache.

On Sunday it was another motorway trip down to Coventry for the return fixture and Blaze gained revenge for their defeat on Saturday evening with a 5-3 victory.

Luke Moffatt, Ciaran Long and Dallas Ehrhardt grabbed the goals for Storm

Head Coach Ryan Finnerty said: “We played well on Saturday and deserved the win. Coventry are a much improved side this season and gave us two tough games.

“We played well in the first quarter at Coventry and had a goal disallowed but once Blaze went in front we were chasing the game and ran out of time.

“I decided to give net minder Jindrich Pacl a start. He has been patient as Matt Ginn has been in top form but we needed to give Pacl some quality game time and he did well.

This weekend Storm face Dundee Stars on Saturday evening at the Storm Shelter in Altrincham (7pm) before making the short journey to play Sheffield Steelers on Sunday (4pm).

Sheffield have been in turmoil of late and lost their Head Coach Paul Thompson who resigned after a poor start to the season.