GAME RECAP: Manchester Storm 4 Glasgow Clan 3

GAME RECAP

Glasgow Clan suffered their first regulation time loss in over a month but didn’t go down quietly as Manchester Storm held to record a 4-3 win at Planet Ice, Altrincham.

It was a third game in a four-game road stretch as Manchester served as the latest stop off and a venue where Glasgow had only one win in their last four.

Both sides traded early penalties as Simon Després and Craig Martin for Storm each sat out for a couple of minutes, but no advantage could be claimed.

Clan thought they had got on board after Rylan Schwartz got a final touch on the puck in front of the home net, but his stick was over the cross bar which was confirmed after review.

A wrist shot from Tyler Hinam opened the scoring for Manchester on 14 minutes and Clan found themselves behind for the remainder of the period.

Storm doubled their lead six minutes after the restart when Alexis D’Aoust found himself out in front of Landon Bow’s net and duly delivered a second goal.

But Clan retaliated just over a minute later as Deven Sideroff slammed the puck home to close the gap to one.

Corey Neilson’s side saw further penalties come with both Sideroff and Darien Kielb each sitting for holding, but good penalty killing got Glasgow through those.

A tightly contested played out in the opening half of the third period as Storm sought a third goal to open what would be a significant gap while Clan simply looked to tie the game up.

It was the home side who found a way as Loren Ulett assisted for Gianluca Estevez, who sent his shot home from the centre to the delight of the Storm fans.

D’Aoust made sure of the points with an empty net goal in the final minutes as Clan went for broke by bringing off Bow in an attempt to salvage something.

Glasgow responded straight away as Robert Lachowicz found the net for his third goal of the season.

But in the final couple of minutes, a late penalty allowed Sideroff to get the final touch on a powerplay chance to reduce the gap to one and give the Purple Army hope an unlikely lifeline.

Storm managed to see out the game in the end, despite Glasgow’s best efforts as they complete the road games in Sheffield on Sunday.

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FACT OF THE DAY

• Clan’s loss in Manchester for their first in regulation time since going 5-2 against Sheffield Steelers on 1st February, 35 days ago.  In the 12 games since, Glasgow picked up 21 points from a possible 24.

GALLERY

Photos by Mark Ferriss