STORM BLITZ ISSUE #54 Tuesday 2 September 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail into.the.storm@poboxes.com any time. There are currently 160 subscribers to Storm Blitz Apologies for the delay in sending out this edition of Storm Blitz. Tons to catch up on! --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Nick Poole playing in Finland * Paisley v Storm re-arranged * Paisley beat Telford 7-2 * Storm draw with Steelers * David Smith to go to Fife * Interlaken on tour * Newcastle v Bracknell * Tobacco sponsorship update * Storm win International Tournament in style * Match abandoned due to fog * James Manson signs for Telford * Meet the Players Night * Wella Charity Shield * Vitokice on tour * Blackburn Hawks change name * New B&H Plate * Campaign for more Storm press coverage * GMR do commentary on Storm v Amiens (shock!) * Ogdens to launch official Storm Web site * Forthcoming Storm games * TV and Radio News * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > NICK POOLE PLYING IN FINLAND Nick Poole now plays for Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish 1st Division. The Pelicans finished 2nd in the league last season and qualified for the promotion play-offs, although they lost to Haukat in the first round by 3-2 in the best of five game series. > PAISLEY v STORM RE-ARRANGED The game between Paisley Pirates and Storm has been re-arranged for FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER because all ice hockey games in the UK have been re-arranged to avoid a clash with the funeral of Princess Diana. Most sport in the Manchester area has been switched to either Friday night or Sunday afternoon. > PAISLEY BEAT TELFORD 7-2 Paisley Pirates went top of the Group A table after they defeated fellow British League team Telford Tigers 7-2. Paisley opened the scoring after just 33 seconds with Edmiston putting the Scottish side in front. Marsden made it 2-0 with a powerplay goal after 10 minutes. Brandimore pulled one back for Telford after 14 minutes. Two minutes into the second period Lynch made it 3-1 to Paisley with Edmiston making it 4-1 after 28 minutes. Hand made it 5-1 just after the start of the third period. It was 6-1 two minutes later with another goal from Hand, this time short-handed. Claude Dumas pulled a second goal back for Telford after 45 minutes on the powerplay and then with 10 minutes remaining it was 7-2 with a goal from Robertson to finish off the scoring. > STORM DRAW WITH STEELERS Storm opened their B&H Cup campaign in front of 11,105 fans with a 2-2 draw against Sheffield Steelers. Storm opened the game looking much the stronger side but Steelers were always dangerous on the breakaways. Just before the end of the first period, Allison opened the scoring with a goal for Steelers. Four minutes into the second period Jeff Tomlinson equalised for Storm on the powerplay and the score stayed that way until the end of the second period. The third period opened with Steelers going ahead again with a goal from Andre Malo. A minute later Rick Judson scored the equaliser for Storm, again on the powerplay. There was controversy as Steelers had a shot that hit the pipes and the red light went on, but was overturned to rule out the goal. The game remained drawn as there was no overtime - this is a Superleague rule and so does not apply in the B&H Cup. > DAVID SMITH TO GO TO FIFE Kurt Kleinendorst has announced that David Smith is opting to play for Fife Flyers. Kurt says that he will get the ice time he wants at Fife and Storm would call upon him if, for example, there was an injury crisis. You can read the full Storm interviews on brand new Storm site THE LOCKER ROOM INTERVIEWS at http://members.aol.com/radiojones/locker.htm > INTERLAKEN ON TOUR Kingston Hawks with guests including Nottingham's Jeff Sebastian, faced touring Swiss side Interlaken in Hull on Sunday 24 August. Kingston led the Swiss side 3-2 in the third period, but they scored an equaliser to end the game 3-3. Interlaken were the visitors for Nottingham's first home game under ther new management and a crowd of 2200 were there to see it. The result was an 11-3 win for Nottingham against the touring Swiss lower-league team. The three Interlaken goals came in the final 30 mins of the game. > NEWCASTLE v BRACKNELL Newcastle Cobras and Bracknell Bees played two games in two days against each other in the opening B&H Cup Group B games. In Newcastle on Saturday 30th, the Cobras defeated Bracknell 3-2. The return on Sunday saw a comprehensive victory for Bracknell by 6-2. The Bees goals in this second game were scored by Gomes (3), Kelman, Bucsis and Burke. Newcastle's goals were from Duberman and Vani. > TOBACCO SPONSORSHIP UPDATE The Daily Express reports that the Sports Minister has reconsidered the ban on tobacco sponsorship. The ban on advertising will still stand, but as a ban on sponsorship would be harmful to the sports concerned. The sponsorship of events such as the B&H final can continue for another five years and the situation will then be reviewed. > STORM WIN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT IN STYLE The four team Manchester International Tournament (24/25 August) was won by Manchester Storm in style as they completely over-ran the other teams. The opening match in the tournament was an 8-3 win by Amiens over Esbjerg. Storm then played Tilburg Trappers for their opening game of the season. Stefan Ketola scored the first goal of the season on 3.25 before Rick Judson made it 2-0 after 10 minutes. Dave Morrison made the score 3-0 with a goal with 2 minutes remaining of the first period. A minute into the second period, Stefan Ketola scored again - this time a short-handed goal. The first goal by a retained player was on 23.14 as Craig Woodcroft made the score 5-0. Dave Morrison scored his second goal of the game on 26 minutes to make the two-thirds score 6-0. There was more of the same in the third period as Rick Judson scored again on 45 minutes and Brad Rubachuk scored with 7 minutes remaining to make it 8-0. Jeff Jablonski wrapped it all up with a goal in the final minute to make Storm's first game of the new season a resounding victory. Sunday saw the play-off game take place first with Esbjerg defeating Tilburg Trappers 5-3. The Final then took place between Amiens and Storm. Brad Rubachuk opened the scoring on just 31 seconds and then scored again after 10 minutes to make the score 2-0. Mike Morin scored just after the period break before Storm conceded their first goals of the season after one and a half games with Amiens scoring twice to close the score to 3-2. Dominic Maltais restored order on 34 minutes with Storm's fourth and then Troy Neumeier and Dominic Maltais scored two more goals just before the end of the second period. Dale Jago scored his first goal of the season and Storm's 7th of the night on 42.45 before David Smith scored what may be his only goal of the season after 45 minutes to make the score 8-2. Troy Neumeier made it 9-2 with seven minutes remaining before Amiens scored again to make it 9-3. Hilton Ruggles capped an excellent performance with a goal just 2 seconds from time to make the final score Storm 10 - 3 Amiens. > MATCH ABANDONED DUE TO FOG The challenge game between Telford Tigers and Solihull Blaze on Friday 23 August was abandoned due to fog in the rink! Telford were leading 3-2 with 30 minutes of the game remaining when the referee decided that persistent fog above the ice, caused by high humidity in the rink, was too dangerous and that the game should be called off. The following evening Telford visited Solihull in the return game and recorded a 7-3 victory. > JAMES MANSON SIGNS FOR TELFORD Former Storm player James Manson has signed for Telford Tigers and will face his old team Storm when the sides meet at the Nynex Arena on Sunday 7 September. > MEET THE PLAYERS NIGHT Friday 23 August saw the Meet The Players Night take place at the Nynex Arena. The major news from the event was as follows: All the advertising boards seem to be sold and there is now a big Storm logo in the middle of the ice that glows in the dark for the new intro. There are some adverts on the ice with Allsports, Ian Skelly, Arndale Centre Manchester and Adidas have spots there. The shirt - I was very disappointed. I fully intended to buy a new shirt if not on the night then certainly soon, but having seen the new effort I won't be bothering. Where is the emblem that we were led to believe would be on it and where is the team name (ie. Manchester Storm)? Yes, there is a lightning bolt pattern instead of the wishy washy design of last season but although I still think the first season shirt was pretty rubbish, it's not half as bad as the later editions. There was an auction of last year's EHL shirts of the players that are still here. Somebody spent 250 pounds on one of them. I wish I had that sort of money to throw around! We've got some new games instead of Shoot The Puck. There is going to be a game where you have to shoot as many pucks as you can in 1 minute. There is Hit Me With Your Best Shot where two people shoot into different nets and the first one to get 3 goals wins. The third game is called Its A Dogs Life where someone is blindfolded, dressed up in a dog outfit and have to crawl into a kennel on the ice! There's some more music (oh no, that means I'll have to update The Manchester Storm Discography just after I got it to a reasonable stage!). Some more boring 60s and 70s nonsense (have Dave Biggar got some reason for playing this stuff as most of the crowd just look around in amazement?) I didn't catch all of the new tunes, but those I did were as follows: STEP ON - Happy Mondays SATURDAY NIGHT - Whigfield (EXCUSE Me - we play most games on Sunday, so SURELY this won't get played?????) HIGH HO SILVER LINING (dunno who this is by but is ANNOYINGLY catchy despite being old) SHOUT - Lulu (I don't even want to DISCUSS this excuse for a song) SIT DOWN - James THAT'S THE WAY (A-HA A-HA) I LIKE IT - K C & THE SUNSHINE BAND SATISFACTION - Rolling Stones (yawn yawn) THE WRIGLEY'S SPEARMINT GUM ADVERT ONE THAT GOES : "ALRIGHT NOW" WALK THE DINOSAUR - forgotten who this is by PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC - Wild Cherry (aparantly) - what's this nonsense doing played?????? THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER - D:Ream Quite a few new video clips out there - some will get very annoying very soon, but others are quite good. Anyway, we met the new players and watched Jon Hammond in his lion tamer outfit. Very nice (errrm) > WELLA CHARITY SHIELD The first leg of the Wella Charity Shield between Basingstoke Bison and Bracknell Bees was played on Saturday 24 August and after a goalless first period, Shewan scored for Bison after 28 minutes. Bracknell equalised after 33 minutes with a goal from Johnstone. The game ended 1-1. The 2nd leg was played at the Beehive the following evening and Basingstoke took a 3-0 lead in the first period with goals from Conway, Brown and Stefan. Bracknell equalised in the second period with goals from Pellerin (2) and Whistle. Rob Stewart scored the winner in the final period to win the Charity Shield. > VITOKICE ON TOUR Cardiff Devils hosted the touring HC Vitokice on Sunday 24 August and were 5-0 down by the end of the second period. The third period saw a goal from Hodge before Cardiff let in another goal and went down 6-1. > BLACKBURN HAWKS CHANGE NAME Blackburn Hawks have undergone a name change to encourage wider support in the Lancashire area and to improve the local media's coverage of the team. The new name will be Lancashire Hawks and they will surely be hoping to entice Radio Lancashire into covering the team more as they did after Chorley rugby league team changed their name to Lancashire Lynx. > NEW B&H PLATE The following was taken from the BIHA Web site: Benson and Hedges today underlined its commitment to British ice hockey when, with Ice Hockey Superleague (ISL), it launched an additional competition which will be run in conjunction with the Benson and Hedges Cup. The Benson and Hedges Plate will be contested by all the teams involved in the Benson and Hedges Cup which do not qualify for the quarter-final stages of British ice hockey's premier knockout tournament. With the 1997 Benson and Hedges Cup featuring 12 teams divided into two groups, the fifth and sixth placed teams at the end of the round-robin style group games will qualify for the inaugural running of the Benson and Hedges Plate. The fifth placed team will play the sixth placed team in the opposing group in a semi-final over two legs, home and away. The winners of the semi-finals will meet in the final of the Benson and Hedges Plate, which will be played prior to the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Sheffield Arena on Saturday, December 6th, 1997. Jim Elkins, Special Events Director of Benson and Hedges, commented: "The Benson and Hedges Plate has been devised to provide all the clubs who take part in the Benson and Hedges Cup with a second chance of reaching a major final. It is hoped that the new competition will encourage more National League teams to take part in the Benson and Hedges Cup and provide another two sets of fans with a great day out." John Lord, ISL Chief Executive, added: "We are grateful to Benson and Hedges for once again demonstrating their commitment to the sport and for supporting ISL in its endeavours to provide tangible links with teams outside the Superleague. The Benson and Hedges Plate will undoubtedly provide a significant enhancement to an already enjoyable Benson and Hedges finals day at Sheffield in December. The dates of the Benson and Hedges Plate semi-finals will be announced once ice availability has been confirmed. > CAMPAIGN FOR MORE STORM PRESS COVERAGE As far as local Storm press coverage goes, the Manchester Evening News is hard to beat - and no paper apart from the North Manchester Express even comes close. Wouldn't you like to see more Storm coverage in YOUR local paper? The Oldham Chronicle say that they don't cover Storm because no-one there is interested!! Is that true? Oldham Storm fans, tell the Oldham Chronicle that you ARE interested and WANT to see coverage in the paper! E-mail Phil Hirst, the editor, on oec@compuserve.com because if enough people want it - and they know about it, then they'll do it! > GMR TO DO SOME COMMENTARY (SHOCK!) Well, wonders will never cease! GMR's Sunday night programme on 25 August contained a good chunk of commentary of Storm v Amiens in the Tournament Final. The following Sunday against Sheffield Steelers they are back again commentating for spells, but the programme on a Sunday ends at 8.00 or 8.15 so there was no time for the end of the match to be broadcasted. If GMR gets serious with the commentary then surely they will extend their coverage. At the moment there is more need for AWAY commentary than home commentary as most fans will be AT the home games! But it's a start at least - maybe GMR will get some ice hockey fans back from Radio Sheffield soon! The commentator is Andy Costigan and the next commentary game is the match against Interlaken on Wednesday night, sharing coverage with Manchester City's football match. Don't forget to phone GMR in the day and tell them how great they are for providing this service - I suspect they'll drop it if they think no-one's listening. Andy Buckley can be reached on 0161 200 2000 - ask to speak to him on this number. > OGDENS TO LAUNCH OFFICIAL STORM WEB SITE It will happen soon. Ogdens official Storm Web site is about to enter the construction stage. Lets hope they are unofficial-site-friendly as there are a lot of people who have worked very hard over the last 26 months to ensure that Storm are well represented on the Internet. Lets hope it doesn't go un-noticed. The site is expected to be launched in time for the start of the Superleague season in October. > FORTHCOMING STORM GAMES DATE OPPONENTS F/O VENUE COMPETITION Wed 3 Sep Interlaken 7.30 Home Friendly Fri 5 Sep Paisley Pirates 7.00 Away B&H Cup Group A Sun 7 Sep Telford Tigers 6.00 Home B&H Cup Group A Wed 10 Sep Ayr Scottish Eag 7.30 Away B&H Cup Group A Sat 13 Sep Telford Tigers 7.30 Away B&H Cup Group A Sun 14 Sep Ayr Scottish Eag 6.00 Home B&H Cup Group A > TV AND RADIO NEWS WED 3 SEP BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - The Ice Line - Phone in with Steelers players as guests - 1900 - 2000 WED 3 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR Sport - COMMENTARY on Storm v Interlaken and Nottingham Forest v Man City - 1900 - 2300 FRI 5 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR Sport - News of Storm's game at Paisley Pirates as well as commentary on the football games taking place - 1900 - 2200 SAT 6 SEP BBC RADIO 5 LIVE 693/909AM - Night Extra - Full ice hockey results service within sports news - 2330 - 0000 SUN 7 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR Sport - COMMENTARY (not confirmed yet) on Storm v Telford Tigers as well as the evening's cricket - 1430 - 2000 MON 8 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Drivetime - Interview with Storm representative (usually Kurt Kleinendorst) following the weekend's games - 1750 - 1755 > DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. You can download all of the back issues from the Storm Blitz page on Into The Storm. If you do not have Web access, then if you e-mail me, I'll forward the issues that you require on to you. > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO STORM BLITZ Easy! Send an e-mail to into.the.storm@poboxes.com telling me that you don't want Storm Blitz any more. Also use this address if you wish to change e-mail addresses or if you have any comments. *** END OF STORM BLITZ ISSUE #54 *** INTO THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/storm.html OR http://www.poboxes.com/into.the.storm