The first period was fariley uneventful, the first major incident being a spot of handbags between Pellerin and Maltais. Soon after, Bernie made an incredible treble save. Storm had the puck in the Bees' zone, and took a shot on Bernie. He managed to save it, but there were some Storm players camped in the slot. The rebound fell to one of them and he instantly shot for goal, forcing Bernie to drop to the floor to make the save. again the Bees defgence just sat and watched as the rebound was taken by Morrison, who looked to have an easy goal. However, somehow, Bernie was able to get some part of his anatomy to the puck and claw it out, to a standing ovation from Block 5 (well, me, Bobblehat and Mike, at least). Later, joe Ferras was sent through beautifully by a pass out of the d-zone. He was faced by a Manchester defenderand, rather than lose the puck, he intelligently dropped the pass for another Bees forward, who was screaming down the wing behind him. (Not sure who, we couldn't see). The player was all alone, and had time to make an excellent shot, but Hrivnak was more than equal to it, making an excellent stop. Later, Hrivnak made a fantastic stop from Butch, who was all of two foot outside the crease. However, overall the first period was a little slow.
Fortunately, the game picked up a lot in the second period. Shortly after the start, Daft Manchester Kurt announced Hrivnak hadn't got a shut-out against an ISL team yet. Mike screamed, I grinned. Within seconds, Tom Gomes screamed through the Storm defence and launched a bullet, which went straight through Hrivnak's legs. Mike was not happy, and spent the rest of the game several rows in front of Kurt, whilst I just grinned some more. Kurt tried to reverse the situation somewhat, by saying Bernie hadn't had a shut-out against ISL opposition yet. Never mind Kurt. Congratulations to Mike, the first time I've ever seen him NOT lose his temper :-))) Storm gained a Powerplay off a Whistle tripping call, and camped out in our zine, but Bracknell had defended excellently all game, and Storm couldn't find a way through. Shortly after it ended, though, they managed to send someone through on goal, who sent the shot top left, seemingly beating Bernie. Somehow, he managed to extend his arm by an extra two foot and just gloved it, before skating away nonchalently. Bracknell had a chance when Kelman launched a shot over the crossbar, which bounced off the plexi to fall straight in front of the crease, with Hrivnak still facing the other way. Kelman hit it first time, but Hrivnak had just turned in time to block it. 33 minutes into the game, Storm finally got past Bernie (and no, Kurt, it wasn't down to you, at all :-DD). Bracknell failed to clear the puck, and Morin calmly slotted it top left for 1-1.
With 5 minutes or so left on the period, the lights went out over the ice. After a long delay, they were put back on and play resumed, only for the lights to once again die. An announcement was made that this was due to power surges which were affecting the whole of Bracknell. The period was ended 5:19 early and this was played after the interval, before changing ends.
Shortly after the restart, Bees were on the powerplay. Reggie Crawford was carrying the puck out of the zone in an innocuous position, when he made a cross ice pass straight onto Jeff Jablonski's stick. Jablonski skated through 1-on-1 with Bernie, who once again came up big with the glove save to stop him. The period ended, the players swapped ends and play resumed immediately. Soon after, the Storm had the puck in the slot and forced a save from Bernie. The rebound was put straight across the crease to Cooper who shot towards the empty net, but somehow Bernie got a leg to it to turn it away. Mike was on the floor crying. Bernie could do nothing to stop Woodcroft netting shortly after, though, when his fairly tame effort passed through a crowd and past Bernie. Strom enjoyed their lead for all of 12 seconds. Bracknell went back up the ice and Tom Gomes forced a save from Hrivnak. Dave Whistle was the first to react and punced on the rebound to make it 2-2. A few more good chances, but the keepers were both equal to them and a draw was how it stood. A stupid decision by Lehtonen, who had a very good game otherwise, saw Tom gomes go for 2 minutes after slashing Maltais, with just 1 second remaining on the clock. As he had deliberately waved off more obvious penalties by both sides during the game, I can't understand this at all.
Overall, I thought this was a good game. The style of play certainly wasn't the most entertaining, but it was a close game and the final five minutes were extremely tense. Manchester were stopped from playing their usual, very fluid style by some excellent Bracknell forechecking play. Firetruck certainly had his homework right, as he worked the tactics that denied Manchester dictating their play. But, on the night, the deciding factors were the two goalies. Bernie was his usual incredible self, and Hrivnak layed his usual solid, lazy style. I've said it severakl times that I much prefer Sjerven to Hrivnak. Hrivnak gives up to many rebounds for my liking, but there's no denying he made some excellent stops and kept Manchester in it. Up front, it was nice to see the Chief return for Bracknell, and he seems to be on form again, whilst Tom Gomes chipped away at the Storm defence and caused them many problems. For Manchester, Woody got 1+1 and deserved his MOM, whilst Jago was his mormal asured self.
Hmmm, sets up a good one at the Nynex next week.