At Manchester Storm Friday night, Flames for the 2nd game on the bounce had to dig out of a 2 goal deficit before eventually securing a 4-2 road win.
Storm had the only goal of the opening set thanks to a Gianluca Estevez marker nearly 5 minutes in.
Not far off the same point in the middle set, they doubled their advantage with a Tyler Hinam goal. Flames recovered the deficit with a Jack Jacome opener around the midway point before Matt Alvaro squared on a 33rd minute powerplay. Less than 2 minutes from period time, a stoppage altercation expanded through the entire on ice group. A little under 100 penalty minutes later, including majors and ejections to Jacome, Hinam, Daniel Catenacci and Joe Morrow, teams were sent to break early to settle the paperwork before returning to complete the last bit of the 2nd and immediately start the 3rd.
With both teams splitting the penalties exactly evenly they re-started at 5 on 5, but a delayed 3rd period penalty call to Manchester allowed the visitors to take their first lead of the evening thanks to Ethan Strang’s go ahead goal during the 6 on 5 stretch at 48:59, and he added insurance at 57:33 to secure the league table points.
Jake Kupsky stopped 32 of 34 Storm shots while Evan Weninger had 35 saves but on 39 from Flames sticks.
“It was a tough night in a lot of ways, having to come from behind, dealing with the penalties and the ensuing delay, but guys did a good job of sticking with it,” said Paul Dixon.
“Manchester’s ice size is by far the most different from any other rink in the league and it is generally the most physical game you will get home or away because of that, and it was very physical tonight.”
“We made some mistakes still, but we persevered through a style of game that is maybe not how we play every night and it was great to see us keep moving forward and convert some chances to secure a huge win.”
“Hopefully we can carry that over Saturday night when Glasgow join us at Spectrum.”
