Blaze and Storm look for bounce backs

Photo: Mark Ferris

The Coventry Blaze and Manchester Storm meet tonight at the Motorpoint Arena with both sides hoping to pick up a win after a loss earlier in the week.

Storm are still joint top of the Elite Series table with four points from three games, while the Blaze are just one behind. The sides met in the opening game of the competition when Coventry came back from two down to force overtime, only for Manchester to snatch the winner through Ben Lake.

Manchester (26.67%) and Coventry (22.22%) have, by some distance, the two strongest powerplays in the Elite Series. Coventry boast the top penalty kill (88.89%), while Storm's at 62.50 is the tournament's worst.

Team news
In his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Storm Head Coach Ryan Finnerty hinted that he may loom to mix up his goaltending options due to the number of games this week. Sean Bonar has started all three games so far with Stephen Murphy on the bench, while Sam Gospel is an additional option to be dressed. Norwegian Andreas Klavestad still remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury, although the team will assess him again at morning skate today.

Luke Ferrara will be in the Blaze's line-up following his arrival from Cracow, which means Austin Mitchell-King is likely to be a healthy scratch. In his pre-match press conference, Danny Stewart said that Jordan Hedley was "very close" to starting his first game of the tournament. Paul Swindlehurst remains sidelined although is with the team.