Hannoun wins it for Storm in shootout

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Manchester Storm ended the weekend with a win, beating Coventry Blaze in a shootout after the teams were tied 2-2 through 65 minutes on Sunday night at the Skydome.

“I thought, overall, it was a pretty good effort from us,” said Storm’s Dante Hannoun. “There were some moments early in the game and early in the second that we weren’t at our best, but we stuck to the gameplan, battled hard, and it was a good win for us.”

Coventry opened the scoring just 90 seconds in, with Matthew Gleason finishing a wrist shot after a layoff from William Boysen. Manchester created a shorthanded 2-on-1 soon after but shot wide of Mat Robson’s net.

“It was a frustrating game for us. It’s been a difficult run of games here, we want to win games, the fans deserve better and we want to perform better, it was a tough night,” said Blaze forward Adam Robbins.

The Blaze pushed for a second as Drew DeRidder denied Boysen, Elijah Barriga and Gleason on an odd-man rush, while David Clements hit the post from the blue line. Early in the second period Coventry again thought they had doubled the lead, but the puck had hit the side of the net. With just under six minutes left in the frame, Storm tied the game when Hannoun’s shot was ruled to have crossed the line after bouncing down off the crossbar following video review.

Manchester began the third period on the power play, and later took the lead at 51:55 when Zach Sullivan’s point shot was spilled by Robson and Stephen Johnson put in the rebound.

Coventry responded after a spell of pressure. With 3:33 to play, Boysen made no mistake on his second chance to tie the game. Both teams took a point with the score level through regulation.

“We’re playing in a lot of close games, so it’s not like we’re way off it, but we’re coming out on the wrong side of them,” added Robbins. “We have to stick together as a team and find that next gear that’s going to help us close out these tight games. I think we have a good group of guys here.”

Hannoun scored in the first round of the shootout, and with no goals until the fifth round, JD Dudek stepped up and converted to win it for the Storm.

“So far it’s been awesome here in Manchester,” added Hannoun. “I like the league, I like the play, the team welcomed me with open arms. I have nothing but good things to say.”