Manchester Storm were held to a 3-3 draw by an impressive Bees performance. Storm took the lead through Ivan Matulik on the powerplay after Sam Ftorek had been sin binned for slicing.The Bees hit back though and took the lead thanks to goals from Mike McBain (4.15) and Daniel Goneau (7.19). Halfway through the first period Trevor Gallant equalised for Storm again on the powerplay. It remained 202 until the end of the first period.
In the second period Storm dominated at time but Bees netminder Joe Watkins made some stunning saves notably from Mark Bultje and Russ Romaniuk. Stevie Lyle in net for Storm also made some fantastic saves to keep the scores tied. Doug Stienstra, Bracknell’s number seven also cleared a shot off the line. It was an entertaining second period despite their being no goals.
In the third period Bracknell lost Daniel Goneau and Sam Ftorek to the sin bin and they were also reduced for having too many skaters on the ice at one time. The took the lead though through Joe Ciccarello and kept Storm out of the game. Then, with just 118 seconds to play, Ivan Matulik weaved through the Bees defence and hit home a superbly angled shot. The delight and relief on Ivan’s face after the goal showed his love for Storm and they almost scored a dramatic winner but it wasn’t to be.
The crowd, I should also mention, were fantastic and the atmosphere was electric. Storm though remain two points adrift at the bottom.
