Bracknell's third game in these play-offs, and in a building where they have yet to post their first win. The Bees' hopes were high after last weekend's wins over Sheffield and Manchester, and with Manchester missing three key players there seemed there would never be a better time to break the Manchester hoodoo. Bees, on the other hand, were icing a full squad, thanks to the return of the new father, Denis Chasse. Pietrangelo as ever started for the Storm, whilst Campese played for Bracknell, despite a groin strain.
The game got off to an explosive start, with Hurley and Schulte clashing viciously against the boards. Unfortunately, as with all the fights tonight, they happened in the wrong corner and I couldn't see anything to score them. However, whilst Paxton received two minutes for his part in the proceedings, Hurley the ex-Bison tart was thrown out, much to the anger of the crowd. The angry start to the game was totally misleading, and we quickly settled down into a very dull match indeed. Chasse was crosschecked from behind after a battle in the crease for the puck. He landed on top of Pietrangloe, and both took the chance for a couple of illicit punches. A major barny ensued, which ended up with Denis and Blair Scott in the box. Bracknell found themselves two men down for a while, but Storm couldn't do anything with the advantage. They did break through in the fifteenth minute, though, after a cock up by Campese. Bruno went for a wander behind the net, tried to rim the puck round the boards under pressure from Tomlison, but instead sent it to Allard, a few feet away. He played it back to Tomlinson, still behind the net. With Bruno stranded and unable to get back in goal in time Tomlinson had no trouble stepping out and tapping home.
Seconds later Tomlinson found himself on the way to the box on an odd call. A Bees player had hit a high puck, and everyone was expecting a high stick call. However, as soon as a Storm player touched the puck, the whistle was blown and Tomlinson was called for a mysterious crosscheck. Bracknell's powerplay was pretty, but unfortunately pretty ineffective as well. When they were equal handed, though, they were matching the Storm for performance. PC Drouin should have scored late in the period. A lucky bounce off a defender's skate set him up for a 1-on-1. Hoffman got back well and snarled up PC, but he was still able to get a half shot away into Pietrangelo's body. A a good chance resulting from a 2-on-1 break-awa was put wide by Chasse, and then the Bees found themselves breaking with three forwards and only one defender. Chasse squared the puck to Ferraccioli who one-timed the pass on to his left. Had the pass been a good one, it would have been for a shot into a wgaping goal, but it went behind the Chief and the chance was gone. With less than a secon on the clock, a disagreement between Brebant and Ferraccioli (the ISL heavyweights!) ended up with the Chief and Robinson squaring up. So, the period ended with the Storm one up.
Bracknell started the period on the powerplay. Drouin found himself with the puck in his own zone and almost gave it away through bad handling. He regained the puck, though, and decide to make up for his error by taking on the entire Storm team. He charged down the ice, went round the outside of the Storm's defence and took a shot, low and hard, which was kicked out by Pietrangelo. The rebound flew out to Schulte on the point, who ringed a shot off the post. Bracknell wasted another powerplay, during which Campese had trouble with his equipment and was briefly replaced by Greer. Greer made a fantastic glove save but left the ice shortly after. Campese may have been left wishing he stayed on the bench, though. A good break by Storm found Allard with the puck and with a forward in support down the middle. Allard hit the hash marks and flashed the puck accross the crease. It was too good a pass for his colleague, eho couldn't get on the end of it, but the puck still found it's way to Tomlinson back on point. With one touch, Tomlinson screamed the puck high over Campese's shoulder into the far post.
Bracknell came straight back at Storm. Chasse won the puck in aganist the boards and tried to skate out front. His way was blocked by a defender, so instead he passed across the front of net. Pietrangelo went down but couldn't stop the puck. Both Johnstone and Brant were queueing up on the far post, but they just couldn't jam the puck past the prostrate goalie. Bracknell thought they had finally scored when Pietrangelo arm seemed to cross the line after he had gloved Nemirovsky's shot. Kirkham was well placed, though, and ruled no goal. The game was effectively killed with three minutes left exactly. Tomlinson's shot bounced off Campese and bobbled around in the crease. Bruno didn't react very well, allowing Brebant to pick up the loose puck and back-hand over him into the goal. From the face-off, Junkin steamed down the ice, went round the outside and back-handed a shot off the far post, but there was no way back for Bracknell.
From before the second period had ended, it was clear that Bracknell were already convinced they were defeated and had given up. The few chances they had in the third period were half-hearted and doomed to failure before they had begun. Bracknell appeared to hit the post again through Ferras, after really nice set up play by Brant and Chasse. Drouin skated across the face of goal, waited until Pietrangelo went down and then shot straight into his pads. Then came the most desperate act of utter frustration I have ever seen. The puck was flicked out from behind Bracknell's net and came to PC. For some reason, he took a snap shot straight at the goal, which Bruno did well to flick over. What on earth was PC thinking?!.... Bracknell were pushing up more and more, and were almost caught out by it. Brebant and Tomlinson had the entire ice to skate into, with only Matt cote back as cover. They broke into Bracknell's zone, Brebant went round Matty and flicked the puck across the zone. Had he connected Tomlinson would have had his hat-trick, because Bruno was still trying to get across, but the Storm forward fanned on the shot and the puck was cleared.
With five minutes to go, Kirkham drew the ire of the Manchester crowd. BRebant and Chasse collided in mid-ice, because neither were looking where they were going. Brebant was left in pain on the ice, but Kirkham rightly made no call. The crowd were incensed (as is general with the Manchester crowd - who are easily the biggest bunch of whingers in the league), and so were the Storm players. Morrison was so angry, he talked himself into a ten minutye misconduct call, which of course just made the crowd love Kirkham even more! With just over two minutes left, though, the Storm did score to finish the game. Bracknell had a sustained period of pressure in Storm's zone, the puck came back to Matty on point and he tried to fire it back in. It hit Jabblonski's knees on the blue-line, however, and Jabblonski was able to skate the length of the ice and clinically slot past Bruno for Storm's fourth. The frustration on both sides were showing, and Miller and Chasse had a real barn-stormer of a fight. Miller got Chasse's shirt over his head, but denis freed up his arm and landed some heavy punches on Miller. Miller went down twice, but got straight back up again, giving back as good as he was getting. The final result seemed to be Chasse edging it on points, so Bracknell won something at least!
In the end, Bracknell lost this as a team. They were totally lacklustre. In the first period they matched Storm in every area, but from the second they seemed to have lost their passion and self-belief. I can't understand it, considering how important this game was and how well they have played all year. There was no intensity and no physical presence from Bracknell at all. I hope this is a blip, as if we play this way against Sheffield next week, we can kiss the semis goodbye. Bruno was given Bracknell's man of the match, but this was definitely a cop out. He won't have been happy with his performance on any of the goals, but the first and third in particular were his fault. Drouin had probably his worst game in a Bracknell shirt all season. Every move he tried just didn't seem to go right, although he never gave up trying. Tomlinson was robbed for Storm's MOM. Yes, Pietrangelo did post a shut-out, but I didn't think he was particularly spectacular and with the performaces of the Bracknell forwards, he didn't have a hard job. Kirkham had a good game, allowing a pretty clean game to go its own course. The Storm fans were booing him from the end of the first period, but I don't think he made a wrong decision all night, with the exception of Tomlinson's crosschecking call.