Manchester Storm vs Glasgow Clan

The Premier Sports sponsored Glasgow Clan suffered a big loss on the road to an efficient Manchester Storm who picked up two valuable points at home in their quest for progress in the standings.

Glasgow’s newest signing, netminder, Liam Souliere got his first start for the club in tonight’s game after joining from the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye to replace Sami Aittokallio who was placed on injury reserve with Lucas Brine serving as backup in Altrincham.

Brayden Burke, Brett Neumann, and, after nearly 11 weeks, Chris McKay all returned from injury with Darien Kielb also expected to return but he was scratched before the opening puck drop.

On the other side of the puck, Manchester’s Josh Crawley made his return from injury after a few weeks out as the Storm lined up 18 healthy skaters to the Clan’s 17.

Manchester got off to a great start with Dennis Busby winning an offensive zone faceoff and playing it to former Clan forward, Gary Haden who fired a shot from the blue line which Tyler Hinam tipped past Souliere to open the scoring.

The Storm’s second line provided once again with Haden driving to the crease before dropping a pass to Johnson who’s shot snuck through Souliere’s pads and was poked home by Hinam to give them a two-goal lead just 47 seconds after their first.

Despite coming into the game in the midst of a goal drought, Hinam had completed a natural hattrick after just 11 minutes, completed by a neat toe drag in the crease to round the Clan netminder and stroll the puck over the line.

Manchester continued to dominate into the second period with Harrison Caines sending a shot on net which Souliere gloved down but didn’t hold on to, allowing J.D. Dudek to arrive into the slot and send the loose puck into the cage to make it four.

Despite what the scoreline suggested Glasgow were persistent throughout the game, with Deven Sideroff making a run up centre ice and into the goalmouth before it bounced out wide to Brett Neumann who snapped a shot that was easily gloved down by Drew Derrider

In the final period, Sideroff made a crashing run from left wing into the slot and flicked a neat high finish over the shoulder of Derrider to get Clan off the mark.

Dallas Ehrhardt then fired a sharp angle shot which snuck through the legs of Souliere and fell to Hinam who tried to poke it over the line but was met by pads before Steven Seigo came in to sweep the danger away.

Bradley Jenion was later penalised for delaying the game when he sent the puck over the glass from his own zone with just over six minutes left in the game, allowing Corey Neilson to take Souliere out of the game in place of an extra attacker.

Joe Hazeldine cut off Loren Ulett’s early attempt at an empty netter but could do nothing to stop Stephen Johnson who grabbed a shorthanded empty net goal to seal a 5-1 home win for the Storm