STORM BLITZ ISSUE #43 Tuesday 3 June 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail simon.sm@poboxes.com any time. --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Stormforce Newsletter Issue 5 out * Pre-season fixtures announced * Dave Biggar attends Stormforce meetings * Stormforce membership pricing announced * Players to train at Blackburn * Pre-season tour to Scandanavia * Player News * What Raleigh Icecaps made of KK's move * Roller Hockey final in Manchester * Red Wings go ahead in Stanley Cup Final * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > STORMFORCE NEWSLETTER ISSUE 5 OUT Issue 5 of the Stormforce Newsletter should now be with all Stormforce members. It is "The Kurt Issue". The design is the same as all the previous issues - my copy had a ripped front page! There is a picture on the front page of the "King". Pages 2 and 3 has an article from Mick Thompson, the Stormforce Press Officer, who discusses the Lawless sacking and the arrival of Kurt. He also mentions that the next issue of the newsletter, available just before the start of the season, will contain an interview with Kurt and so you are invited to send in your questions. You can e-mail them to me at simonsm@storm.u-net.com and I'll pass them on, or post them directly to KURT QUESTIONS, STORMFORCE, PO BOX 52, MANCHESTER, M21 OFJ. There's an advert for The Fun Factory roller rink on page 4 and the newsletter editorial is on page 5. The next two pages contain "Views From The Press Room" with quotes from the Superleague Play Off Final, facts about Kurt Kleinendorst and a passage from Craig Woodcroft about his Northern Edge Elite Hockey School. The next two pages have a feature on Storm rugby league "alliance" with Oldham Bears. In here it is claimed that there will be an Oldham game that will have Manchester Storm players involved in a similar way as Oldham were in the Storm v Cardiff match when the shirts were presented to the players. There is also an advert for the Great Britain Supporters Club. The centre pages contained a feature on the Presentations Evening while the next two pages had an article from Peter Collins of the North Manchester Express. Page 14 is the Junior Stormforce quiz page and Page 15 deals with EHL away trips. Pages 16 and 17 are the letters pages and the next two pages go into detail about Kurt Kleinendorst's past. The back page just has things like quiz answers on it. Overall it is pretty interesting but is all fairly predictable. Incidentally it also came with an application form for a season ticket and a cut-price admission voucher for Alton Towers. > PRE-SEASON FIXTURES ANNOUNCED Storm have announced a series of pre-season challenge games. date TBA SHEFFIELD STEELERS (away) SUN 31 AUG SHEFFIELD STEELERS (home) (these two games will be a 2 leg challenge trophy called ROSEBOWL or ROSEBALL, I couldn't quite work out the name!) SAT/SUN 23/24 AUGUST : Manchester International Tournament at Nynex Arena. Teams : Manchester Storm, Tilburg Trappers (Holland), Esbjerg (Denmark), Amiens (France). Tilberg Trappers played against Sheffield Steelers last season in the Europa Cup, Amiens were the team that were supposed to play Storm in the EHL this season before being replaced by Sparta Prague, and Esbjerg are returning aftre playing in last year's tournament. The exact fixtures haven't yet been decided (ie which two teams will play each other in the semi-finals). > DAVE BIGGAR ATTENDS STORMFORCE MEETINGS Dave Biggar has decided that he will attend Stormforce committee meetings after all. He announced prior to the Stormforce AGM in April that he would no longer be attending, but will now do so. > STORMFORCE MEMBERSHIP PRICING ANNOUNCED Stormforce membership pricing has been confirmed as 7 pounds (adult) and 5 pound (concessions). The price is equal to the price of a match ticket for next season. Additional Stormforce membership benefits have not yet been announced. > PLAYERS TO TRAIN AT BLACKBURN Ogdens have announced that Storm will train at Blackburn Ice Arena next season instead of Altrincham. There was not enough ice time available at Altrincham Ice Rink next season, apparantly. > PRE-SEASON TOUR TO SCANDANAVIA Storm will not be training in Slough THIS pre-season, they will be going on a tour to Scandanavia instead! The details of the tour aren't to hand yet. > PLAYER NEWS Mike Morin and Craig Woodcroft are expected to return next season to Storm. Brad Rubachuk is confirmed as returning, whereas Nick Poole will NOT be playing for Storm next season. New signings for Storm are Kris Miller, who has been expected to join for some time, and Jeff Tomlinson, a 27 yr old Canadian centre who has played 4 years in Germany after playing at Raleigh Icecaps, Kurt Kleinendorst's former team. I have got some stats for him from 5 years ago!! Nothing more recent yet I'm afraid! 1992-93 Raleigh Icecaps GP G A Pts PIM Jeff Tomlinson 20 8 17 25 19 Jeff Tomlinson (Roanoke-Valley) 6 1 1 2 4 (Raleigh) 44 14 34 48 26 (Total) 50 15 35 50 30 Martin Smith, Nick Poole and John Finnie are all said to be interested in joining Blackburn Hawks. They are believed to have said that they think they will draw fans away from Storm to watch them play at Blackburn. Fife Flyers are also reported to be interested in Martin Smith. Kurt K has said he currently has 14 contracts out and is waiying for the players signatures. Hilton Ruggles and Stephen Cooper will be back next season for certain as they still have a year to run on their contracts. > WHAT RALEIGH ICECAPS MADE OF KK'S MOVE The following was taken from the Raleigh Icecaps Web site (http://www.icecaps.com): KLEINENDORST HEADS ABROAD (RALEIGH, NC) The Raleigh IceCaps have announced that Head Coach Kurt Kleinendorst has resigned from the organization to pursue a General Manager/Head Coach position with the Manchester (England) Storm of the newly formed Super Eight league in the United Kingdom. Kleinendorst is only the second coach in the six year history of the club. The IceCaps have not yet named a replacement for Kleinendorst. In 1991 Kurt became the first coach of the IceCaps and in his second season was named the ECHL coach of the year. In the 1993-94 season Kleinendorst guided the club to the Riley Cup Finals, where they lost to Toledo. Kurt spent the 1994-95 season as the Assistant Coach of the San Diego Gulls of the International Hockey League. Kleinendorst returned to Raleigh the following season. In five seasons behind the bench Kurt has advanced to the post season four times. Kleinendorst has mixed emotions regarding his departure, "The city of Raleigh has been home for the better part of five years for both me and my family, which will make it difficult to leave behind. I have been associated with some great people during my stay here and I certainly thank everyone who has helped me along the way. The opportunity that I have been given in Manchester is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only will I get the chance to coach in arguably the best league in Europe, my family will get the opportunity to experience a whole different way of life." IceCaps General Manager Larry Kish wishes the best for Kleinendorst, "This is a wonderful opportunity that Kurt could not pass up. This will certainly give Kurt a great atmosphere to showcase his coaching talents." KURT KLEINENDORST COACHING RECORD Season Record Pts Standing Playoff Result 1991-92 25-33-6 56 5th East lost 1st round 1992-93 37-22-5 79 3rd East lost semifinal 1993-94 41-20-7 89 2nd East lost final 1995-96 23-34-1 57 6th East lost 1st round 1996-97 30-33-7 67 6th East did not qualify TOTALS 156-142-38 > ROLLER HOCKEY FINAL IN MANCHESTER The final of the new World Rollin' Thunder Roller Hockey league is to be played at the Nynex Arena in August. The league will play part of its games in Canada and the USA and the rest overseas. The finals will then be p;layed in Manchester. More details about this when I find out. > RED WINGS GO AHEAD IN STANLEY CUP FINAL Kirk Maltby and Joey Kocur scored first-period goals and the Detroit Red Wings used a solid defensive effort to make them stand up as they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2, in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday night in Philadelphia. Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman also scored for Detroit, which snapped an eight-game Stanley Cup Finals losing streak as it tries to end its 42-year championship drought. The team that has won Game One has gone on to win the Cup 46 times in the last 58 years. Rod Brind'Amour and John LeClair tallied for the Flyers, who appeared jittery in their first Finals appearance in a decade. 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- DETROIT 2 1 1 4 PHILADELPHIA 1 1 0 2 FIRST PERIOD -- SCORING: 1, Detroit, Maltby 4 (shorthanded) (Draper), 6:38. 2, Philadelphia, R Brind'Amour 11 (power play) (Lindros, Niinimaa), 7:37. 3, Detroit, Kocur 1 (unassisted), 15:56. PENALTIES: Sandstrom, Det (high sticking), 5:50; Fetisov, Det (interference), 11:26; Klatt, Phi (interference), 17:09; Kocur, Det (interference), 19:42. SECOND PERIOD -- SCORING: 4, Detroit, Fedorov 6 (Murphy, McCarty), 11:41. 5, Philadelphia, LeClair 8 (Renberg, Lindros), 17:11. PENALTIES: Lacroix, Phi (interference), 5:48; Fedorov, Det (tripping), 7:08; Fetisov, Det (interference), 15:07; Klatt, Phi (charging), 17:45. THIRD PERIOD -- SCORING: 6, Detroit, Yzerman 5 (Murphy), 0:56. PENALTIES: Svoboda, Phi (cross checking), 6:27; Lindros, Phi (roughing), 17:48. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- DETROIT 8 12 10 30 PHILADELPHIA 10 9 9 28 POWER PLAY: Det - 0 of 5, Phi - 1 of 5. GOALIES: Detroit, Vernon (28 shots, 26 saves; record: 13-4-0). Philadelphia, Hextall (30, 26; record: 4-1-0). Referee: B McCreary. Linesmen: Scapinello, Schachte. Attendance : 20,291. > DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. If you didn't get them, or want them again, you can now download them from the Internet individually, in bunches of 5 in a .zip file or all at once in a .zip file. There will soon be a Web page to access them all from but currently you can get them by entering the individual URLs : http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/blitz01.txt (replace 01 with the number that you wish to see). To get the groups of 5, go to http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/b01-05.zip (other files are b06-10.zip, b11-15.zip, etc up to b36-40) or you can download all of them from http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/ball.zip. When accessing the individual .txt files, you will be better off saving the Web page to your hard disk and then opening it in NOTEPAD as the Web browsers don't seem to word wrap .txt files. > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO STORM BLITZ Easy! Send an e-mail to simon.sm@poboxes.com telling me that you don't want Storm Blitz any more. 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