The Fife Flyers made the long journey down to Altrincham on Saturday evening to face a Storm side battling to regain a playoff spot. The Storm have impressively won their last five games against the Flyers at the Shelter and were looking to keep that streak alive.

A cagey and somewhat scrappy first five minutes elapsed with no notable chances on net as both sides struggled to get a hold of the game. The Flyers weathered the period’s first and only powerplay, boxing out the Storm’s special team with some solid defending. A fortunate turnover on the blueline saw Martin gain possession and find Morrow in the slot who skilfully lasered the puck in to the top corner to put the Storm up by one at the midpoint of the period. Some top draw goal tending from both Weninger and Voris would prevent any further scoring in the opening twenty and send the Storm to the locker room with a one goal advantage.

In contrast to the first, the second period opened with some fast and free flowing hockey – the Storm having the majority of possession and shots on net. Again, both netminders found in top form keeping the scoreboard operator with little work to do. With the Storm a man down, as Johnson sat a slashing minor, the penalty killers found themselves on an odd man breakaway that forced Voris to leave his crease in a failed attempt to block the pass with his outreached stick. And it was Ulett who fired in to the vacant net assisted by Morrow and Durflinger. Just moments later Hughes would increase the lead to three as a well worked passing play between himself, Hebert and Durflinger split the Flyers defence. Against the run of play the visitors managed to grab a goal back when a shot from the point rebounded out in front and was eventually tucked away by Cichy with two minutes left in the period.

It took just four minutes in to the third period for the Storm to regain their three goal cushion as D’Aoust found Hughes at the back post who fired in to an empty net as Voris failed to cover his crease in time. Crucially for the Flyers Delmas cut the deficit less than thirty seconds later after a well worked team goal. This quick response seemed to kick the Flyers up a gear as they created some good offence. The pressure paid dividends as two quick goals scored by Chiodo and Craig levelled the score at 4-4 with seven minutes remaining in the game. A fourth unanswered goal followed for the Flyers, scored by Cichy, with two minutes remaining forced the Storm’s coaching staff to pull Weninger in favour of an extra forward. Unfortunately to no avail as the Flyers held on and took a hard earned two points back up to Scotland.

Kristian Stokwisz