A Look Ahead to Storm at Home

This weekend will be a home and road affair with EIHL upstarts, Manchester Storm in a quest for 4 points and a stake in the contention for the EIHL title.

Regular Season So far; 2 – 0 – 2

Storm sit 3rd with 3 points ahead of Cardiff Devils after a promising start to their respective campaign. A lot would write off the Minnows from Manny, along with Fife Flyers, however the first few games have proven that they have what it takes to compete a full 60 against anyone.

There isn’t much to separate the two teams, as for GF both have netted 12 times and Storm have conceded 2 less than the good guys, with Evan Weninger helping them to win 3 from 4, holding a 1.94 GAA and 94.6%SV.

His SV% is the leagues best so far, up there amongst the best goalies as for GAA, so he will be a tough net minder to beat.

So far, the Storm are yet to be beaten in regulation time, collecting points in all of their league games to date.

Meanwhile, the home team would look to continue their winning ways from the recent challenge cup success, by bouncing back in league action and keeping their own aspirations afloat.

Disappointing league results soured the mood a little, but a rejuvenated squad with a new addition yet to start his first league game, Brandon Alderson are looking to extend their run and get back in the thick of things.

Barrow (4) remains top of the pack for league points at this time matched by Cox, Busch and Ully. The latter is yet to take a penalty in either competition so far.

He also leads in the apples department, making a case to stack the brewery instead of Cox, Cox’s Apple Cider was a hallmark from last season.

Another claimant to the points tallies is Cody Donaghey for defence, as he is tied to 3 points with last years EIHL DOTY Marcus Crawford. Both are starting to get into there own grooves, so hopefully all the aforementioned can contribute this weekend.

One cause for concern is Cole Sanford, who has been pretty quiet since the start of the season. Luckily he is at a point per game pace in the challenge cup, his last point was a secondary assist vs Blaze last Friday. Can he turn this around and start producing his signature hat tricks?

A main benefit as reported before is that there have been goals from across the roster, so even if the top line isn’t quite lighting the lamps each game, the team are packing in the SOG and getting their reward.

A comprehensive win and max points for the weekend would set the home team up for a good run, until they would meet Storm again in 3 weeks time.

Predicted Line Up vs Storm

Trevor Cox – Joey Martin – Cole Sanford

Cole Ully – Jamie Arniel – Justin Crandall

Ryan Barrow – Tyler Busch – Brandon Alderson

Joshua Waller – Ben Davies – Riley Brandt

Mark Richardson – Josh Batch

Marcus Crawford – Chad Pietroniro

River Rymsha – Cody Donaghey

Callum Booth

Ben Bowns

IR – Evan Mosey