Well, after last night's drubbing by London, and with 16 year old Craig Astill starting in nets, who would possibly have thought Bracknell could get their first ever win at the Nynex? Certainly not Reality, anyway, and so it was toprove, as Bees went down in a spirited performance. As well as Astill in nets, Bees missed Paxton Schulte, suspended after his Gross Misconduct. Storm had Pietrangelo in goal, and young Danny Higgens as back-up. Mike Rowe wore the stripey shirt and waterwings.
The game got off to a good start, both teams playing end-to-end stuff. Storm seemed off-form, holding back but also making some glaring mistakes - Brebant almost fell over after fanning on the puck just outside the crease. Bees went onto an early penalty kill, but were able to scramble thepuck away. Soon after, PC Drouin forced a good save from Pietrangelo and Dale Junkin was sent through the middle, but Sten and Scott did well to tangle him up. Bees again survived a penalty kill and wasted a powerplay, with neither team really seeming to have the edge. Both teams were playing quite mellow hockey, few hits, neither looking for the kill in attack. However, Storm changed this in the fourteenth minute. Bracknell had the puck in defence and were passing the puck amongst themselves easily. Rob Stewart played the puck forwards to Chief, who tried to be too fancy and lost the puck on the blue-line. Jeff Tomlinson snatched it and steamed into the zone, letting fly a beautifully placed wrist-shot, low past Craig Astill.
Later, with both teams reduced to four skaters, Stefan Ketola really should have made it two nil to Manchester. His shot was saved by Craig but the rebound flew out near the post. Ketola latched onto the puck, and sent a quick snap-shot behind the prostrate keeper, but it whisked past the far post, and away from goal. Bracknell spent the rest of theperiod on the back foot. The goal seemed to rock them a little, and they concentrated on protecting Craig. Very rarely did they get into Manchester's zone, and the few chances they had, were squandered. The period finished 1-0 to Storm.
Bracknell started out quick in the second, and scored in less than a minute. The puck was held in the zone by Bracknell, Norm Dezainde played a centring pass to Sal Manganaro on point, but he fluffed the shot. The puck carried through to Shayne McCosh behind him, and his shot ripped past Pietrangelo. The game sped up a lot after this, and returned to near equality. Craig had to make some great (and admitedly lucky) saves, including a point-blank shot from Hurley. Todd Kelman brought the puck forward into Manchester's zone, with two forward's in support. He looked to pass one way, then another, appeared to decide topss left, but turned back inside and hit the puck high, forcing Pietrangelo to block with his shoulder. The rebound was sent back to the Chief on the point, but his belter hit a few skates and sailed just wide.
More chances from Bracknell, with Chief again forcing a good save. Dennis Burke kept control of the puck, and played it back to Denis Chasse. He casually stepped around the blocking defender, and flicked a powerful wrist shot, which was well saved. Denis was having a bad day, and came back onto the bench swearing pretty hard. Bracknell had been holding Storm out well, and seemed to be growing in confidence, but from Chasse's shot, the puck was sent down ice and Tomlinson scored past Craig on the wrap-around. This took the sails out of Bracknell again, and they spent the rest of theperiod on damage-limitation.
Bracknell looked to come out of the interval and restore parity, but instead it was the Storm who came out with the quick goal. Jeff Jablonski came out from behind the net and Astill showed all his inexperience, not being quick enough to cover the gap between his pads. Storm had the bit between their teeth now, and Bracknell were wasting more and more of their attacks. On one of those wasted attacks, Storm showed all their ability by going from behind their goal-line to Bracknell's blue-line in just two very quick passes. Askew burst over the blue-line and really should have made it count, but Craig trapped it in his pads and cleared. Late on in the game, Norm Dezainde and Kevin Hoffman clashed Norm absolutely thrashing Hoffman (all credit to him, though, he stayed on his feet), both sat for six minutes. Chief again lost the puck on the blue-line, and a quick tic-tac-toe move into Bracknell's zone finished with Stefan Ketola, who skated in on Craig, deked one way, then the other, and walked it past the young goalie. Bracknell should have scored a consolation goal in the last minute, when Sal Manganaro burst past the defence and skated on goal. He tried to imitate Ketola, deked Pietrangelo (sending him to the floor) and went by him, backhanding the puck towards the goal. Somehow, though, Pietrangelo strecthed a pad and flicked clear. The puck landed at Drouin's stick, and he sent it back to Sal, who must have been sick to see Pietrangelo had recovered enough to block the shot and trap it under his pads.
In the end, this was about restoring some respect after the London match. Bracknell may have been beaten, but they can leave with a little pride again. They played a good defensive match, and showed themselves to be much more alert in the zone than usual. If they would jump on the rebounds normally as often as they did tonight, then with a quality keep[er in net (or at least Bernie) they could climb back up the table again. They still need to shape up in attack. Too often they showed little imagination or talent, throwing the puck into the corners without checking to see if there was a player in position to win the puck. Craig Astill looks to be a young talent who, with good training, could well make some grade. He was shielded well by the defence, and lucky with some of his saves, but his positional sense is good (a lot of saves were because he was in the way, rather than he put his pads in the way). He may never make ISL standard, but he could probably get a job in the BNL in the next few years. I just wish we'd played him last night. Rowe had a pretty quiet night, but the play was so unphysical he rarely had to intervene. Can't really take fault with his calls, either, as that would just be pedantic. Overall, a much better result than I expected.