TICKETS: The Go Goodwin’s Manchester Storm are back in action on Saturday 7th January as we face the Fife Flyers in EIHL action. Faceoff is at 7pm and tickets can be ordered online, by calling the box office on 0161 926 8782, or in person at the box office!

Your Go Goodwins sponsored Manchester Storm are back in Gardiner Conference action this Saturday, as they look to overcome the Fife Flyers, facing off at 7:00 pm at the Storm Shelter.

The teams find themselves in a fierce battle in both the league and the Gardiner conference standings. Storm, coming off the back of a 4-1 New Year’s Day loss to the Steelers, are sitting second in the conference table, 3 points and 1 place above the Flyers. Both teams are attempting to chase down the Braehead Clan who currently occupy the top spot in the conference, albeit with both teams have games in hand on the Clan. The Flyers and the Storm are deadlocked in joint 6th position in the league, both have 27 points from 27 games. This weekend’s home and home series could give one team a bit of breathing room in 6th position, and push the other into a battle with 8th-placed Coventry.

Last Weekend: Both teams were in action over the New Year period. Fife took on the Capitals in their traditional Hogmanay match, overcoming Edinburgh 6-3 away. Carlo Finucci and Ryan Dingle got 2 goals apiece, Brendan Brooks and Justin Fox rounding out the scoring. This was followed up with the visit of Braehead to the Fife Ice Arena, and the Clan took both points as they won 4-1. Justin Fox scoring in consecutive games for the Flyers. The Storm had a double-header against the Sheffield Steelers and was unlucky to come out of the games with no points. The tight 2-1 loss on New Year’s Eve was followed up with a 4-1 Steelers victory on New Year’s Day in a penalty-riddled game at the Storm Shelter.

Storm vs Flyers games so far: This is the third meeting between the teams in Altrincham this season, and both previous meetings have resulted in victories for the Storm. The first game saw Mike Clemente get a shutout for the Storm in a 3-0 victory. Connor Varley, Omar Pacha, and Darian Dziurzynski getting the goals for Manchester. This was followed by a 4-3 Storm penalty shot victory in December. In a see-saw game, Manchester got off to a great start, taking a 2-0 lead through Taylor Dickin and Paul Phillips. The Flyers charged back into the game thanks to Brendan Brooks and a double from Chase Schaber. Mario Trabucco got the game-tying goal before Storm scored both penalty shots and Flyers didn‘t convert on any of theirs.

Special Teams: At the Storm Shelter, Manchester have been impressive on the special teams. In home league games, they have converted on 19% of their powerplay opportunities and been successful on 90% of their penalty kill. On the road, Fife has converted on 14.3% of their power play opportunities and have a 78.6% penalty kill.

Form: Storm have 3 wins in their last 5 home league games, whilst the Flyers have 2 wins from their last 5 away games.

Who’s hot? Darian Dziurzynski has found the net recently, scoring 3 in his last 5 games and has 5 points in his last 5 games too. For the Flyers, Ryan Dingle has racked up 13 points in his last 5 games, 6 of which came in a single game against Edinburgh.

One to watch: Bryan Cameron was signed by the Flyers this week, and should be making his debut this weekend. He spent the start of the season in the East Coast Hockey League and should provide some much-needed depth to a Flyers squad that has lost a couple of players to injury this season.

MATCH DETAILS:

• Doors open from 6:00pm
• Face-off at 7:00pm
• SOTB is Captain #44 Trevor “TJ” Johnson!
• 50/50 & “Chuck A Puck” will also be running! Buy your tickets from sellers around the rink!
• Tickets for the game can be bought from HERE
• Storm will be in their BLACK home jerseys
• Jacks Bar will be open post game until 11pm
• There is FREE ice skating + skate hire until 11pm