STORM BLITZ ISSUE #68 Monday 20 October 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail simonsm@intothestorm.co.uk any time. There are currently 183 subscribers to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Into The Storm relaunches * B&H Cup semi final draw * Storm beat Ayr after overtime * Bracknell beat Bison 5-3 * Storm reach semis with 5-4 win at Nynex * Cardiff, Ayr and Newcastle through to semis * Cardiff win firey B&H game 3-2 in Sheffield * Milton keynes Bladerunner to reopen * Zavisha scores twice on debut for ECHL Birmingham * Latest Superleague table * Latest EHL Division F table * Forthcoming Storm games * Traveling away to watch Storm * TV and Radio News * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > INTO THE STORM RELAUNCHES Into The Storm relaunches on Wednesday morning with a new address. Make sure you amend your bookmarks to http://www.intothestorm.co.uk - the old addresses will still work for a few weeks yet though. The new address has meant that Into The Storm is now hosted in the UK on one of U-Net's Web servers in Warrington instead of at GeoCities in the USA. There is a noticable speed difference at the new site and so the pages should now load quicker. There Java applet has been replaced with an advert banner from Into The Storm's new sponsors Southern Graphics. The new logo and graphics have been produced by Southern Graphics. There is also mail forwarding in operation meaning that my new e-mail address is simonsm@intothestorm.co.uk although all other addresses will still work. The new site has extensive server access statistics and these will be linked from Into The Storm shortly. A brand new Guestbook will launch shortly as well as a new internal search engine allowing you to search Into The Storm for a particular keyword. For example if you are a fan of Dale Jago, you can search for "Jago" and the search engine will list links to every page where he is mentioned whether it is a Guestbook page, a news page or a comment on the Message Forum. The mailto forms will shortly be replaced with new forms that work on Internet Explorer as well as Netscape (at last!) and you will be able to submit Hockey Humour, Fan Interviews and comments about the site this way soon. Finally I have replaced the purple with a much deeper purple to closer reflect the current Storm colour scheme - it also makes the left frame links stand out more. If you have any comments about the new site, please e-mail me at simonsm@intothestorm.co.uk as I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the site. If you have a Web site that currently links to Into The Storm, please amend the links over the next couple of weeks to the new address. > B&H CUP SEMI FINAL DRAW The semi final draw of the Benson & Hedges Cup made live on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday evening at 4.45pm resulted in the following two legged ties: Manchester Storm v Ayr Scottish Eagles Cardiff Devils v Newcastle Cobras Storm will face Ayr first on Friday 31 October face off 7.30 at the Nynex Arena with the return on Saturday 8 November at the Centrum Arena. > STORM BEAT AYR AFTER OVERTIME In front of 8700 at the Nynex Arena, Storm won their first overtime game of the season - and indeed scored their first Superleague win. They so nearly threw it all away as well. Leading 1-0 for a long period from a goal from Wiklander after 9 minutes. In the second period, the majority of the Ayr fans arrived after being delayed and saw Rubachuk credited for a deflected goal off the Ayr netminder. On 41 minutes it was 3-0 with a Jeff Jablonski goal and Storm had surely done enough already. That's obviously what they thought! Ayr scored two quick goals from Montenari and Purdie to make it 3-2 and a contest again. With 90 seconds remaining Steer scored and sent the game into overtime. There were quite a few chances to both sides in overtime before Brad Rubachuk scored the winner with 3 minutes remaining and the crowd went wild. > BRACKNELL BEAT BISON 5-3 Bracknell Bees defeated Basingstoke Bison 5-3 at The Hive on Sunday in the Superleague. Crawford opened for the Bees after just 1 minute and then Hurley equalised for Basingstoke two minutes later. Burke then put Bees back infront 2-1 just before the end of the first period. Just after the start of the second, Priest made it 2-2, but 7 minutes later McCosh put Bracknell back into the lead. It was 4-2 on 35 minutes with a goal from Crawford and Gomes made it 5-2 a minute later. The scores remained the same until two minutes from the end when Dungey scored a consolation goal for Basingstoke. > STORM REACH SEMIS WITH 5-4 WIN AT NYNEX On Saturday night at the Nynex Arena, Storm faced Bracknell Bees in the second leg of the Benson & Hedges Cup quarter finals. The first leg had finished 2-2 the week before and Storm seemed confident of overcoming the Bees. In front of a crowd of approx 5500 Storm got off to a great start with a goal early on but Bracknell had other ideas. An equaliser came towards the end of the first period and the second period saw two more Bees goals before Storm closed the gap to 3-2 a minute before the end of the second period. The third period saw Storm equalise briefly before Bracknell went back into the lead 4-3. Storm were set to have the last word as they scored two goals to the delight of the crowd and obvious disappointment of the Bracknell players. A scuffle broke out at the start of the presentation ceremony involving most of the players. Mark Bernard won the Bracknell Man of the Match award, while Dave Morrison won the award for Storm. The result means that Storm defeated Bracknell 7-6 on aggregate and will play the semi final 1st Leg on Friday 31 October at the Nynex Arena. The second leg is on Saturday 8 November. The opposition is not yet known. > CARDIFF, AYR & NEWCASTLE THROUGH TO SEMIS In the other second legs of the Benson & Hedges Cup played on Saturday, Cardiff Devils sealed their place in the semi finals with a great 5-2 win over Sheffield Steelers to win 8-4 on aggregate. Scott Allison opened the scoring for Steelers to level the aggregate score at 3-3 and the score remained the same until near the end of the second period when Cardiff scored to regain the aggregate lead. Cardiff scored four more times to Steelers once to seal their semi final place. Ayr Scottish Eagles travelled to Nottingham with a 4-2 lead from the first leg and won again 4-3 to go through on aggregate 8-5. Newcastle Cobras travelled to Basingstoke with the scored level on 1-1 from the first leg. Brett Stewart scored a hat-trick for the Cobras as they ran out 5-1 winners on the night, 6-2 on aggregate. > CARDIFF WIN FIREY B&H GAME 3-2 IN SHEFFIELD Cardiff Devils travelled to Sheffield on Friday night in the 1st Leg of the Benson & Hedges Cup and in a firey game won 3-2. Sheffield netminder Hibbert was at fault as the Cardiff winner with the scored tied at 2-2 shot by Moria was deflected into the net by Hibbert. The second leg was set to take place in Cardiff the following night and this performance must have given Cardiff great hope of progressing. > MILTON KEYNES BLADERUNNER TO REOPEN The following was taken from the Milton Keynes Citizen: The Bladerunner Ice Arena should be open again within two months, it was revealed this week. Birmingham based company Planet Ice hope to conclude a deal to take over the Bladerunner from the giant First Leisure group within the next few days. Planet Ice managing director Mike Petrouis told the Citizen this week the conclusion of negotiations was "imminent" and his organisation was keen to start work on the rink. He said it would take five or six weeks for refurbishments to be carried out in order to put the rink back into usable condition. He disclosed Planet Ice first approached First Leisure 11 months ago with a bid to take over the rink. At that time there was no response. The rink closed June last year when the previous operators Bladerunner Holdings ran into financial trouble. Once the rink has reopened Planet Ice will assess what future development needs are. > ZAVISHA SCORES TWICE ON DEBUT FOR ECHL BIRMINGHAM Brad Zavisha who left Storm during the summer and signed for Birmingham Bulls of the East Coast Hockey League in North America. He made his regular season debut this week in the Bulls game at Louisiana Ice Gators. It took just 2 minutes for Brad Zavisha to open the scoring for Birmingham Bulls on a short-handed breakaway. Louisiana equalised after 17 minutes and it remained 1-1 until Birmingham went ahead again when Brad Zavisha scored again just 17 seconds into the second period. Louisiana then scored three times in the second period to bring the score to 4-2. On 47 minutes it was 4-3 when Bulls scored again. The Ice Gators scored three more times before the end of the game to end it 7-3. Brad must have been pleased with his two goals but unhappy at the way his team played overall to go down so heavily in their opening regular season game. > LATEST SUPERLEAGUE TABLE Pl W D OL NL +/- Points Ayr Scottish Eagles 4 2 0 1 1 +5 5 Manchester Storm 4 1 2 1 0 +0 5 Cardiff Devils 3 1 2 0 0 +3 4 Basingstoke Bison 4 1 2 0 1 -1 4 Nottingham Panthers 4 1 2 0 1 -2 4 Sheffield Steelers 2 1 1 0 0 +3 3 Bracknell Bees 3 1 1 0 1 -1 3 Newcastle Cobras 2 0 0 0 2 -7 0 Win=2; Draw=1; Overtime Loss=1; Normal Loss=0 > LATEST EHL DIVISION F TABLE Pl W OW OL L +/- Points Moscow Dynamo 3 2 1 0 0 +13 8 Manchester Storm 3 1 0 2 0 - 1 5 Sparta Prague 3 1 0 0 2 - 2 3 Bolzano 3 0 1 0 2 -10 2 Win=3; Overtime Win=2; Overtime Loss=1; Loss=0 > FORTHCOMING STORM GAMES DATE OPPONENTS F/O VENUE COMPETITION Tue 21 Oct Newcastle Cobras 7.30 Home Superleague Sun 26 Oct Bracknell Bees 6.00 Away Superleague Tue 28 Oct Sparta Prague 7.30 Home EHL Division F Fri 31 Oct Ayr Scottish Eagles 7.30 Home B&H Cup SF Leg 1 Sun 2 Nov Newcastle Cobras 6.30 Away Superleague Sat 8 Nov Ayr Scottish Eagles 6.00 Away B&H Cup SF Leg 2 Sun 9 Nov Cardiff Devils 6.00 Away Superleague Tue 11 Nov Sheffield Steelers 7.30 Home Superleague Sat 15 Nov Sheffield Steelers 7.00 Away Superleague > TRAVELLING AWAY TO WATCH STORM Bracknell Bees v Manchester Storm Sunday 26 October 1997 face off 6.00 Address John Nike Leisuresport Complex, John Nike Way, Bracknell. Telephone 01344 860033 Capacity 3100 Directions Take M6, M42, M40 south. At Junction 9 take A34 South. Follow signs for Newbury. At M4 turn left heading East. At Junction 10 turn right, take A329M and then A3408. Follow signs for Skating Rink. Newcastle Cobras v Manchester Storm Sunday 2 November 1997 face off 6.30 Address Newcastle Arena, Arena Way, Newcastle Upon Tyne Telephone 0191 401 8000 Capacity 7000 Directions Take M62 East to A1 (North). Keep with A1, then 1(M). After Washington Services bear left. Take A184 sign for Newcastle Centre. Over Tyne Bridge turn left and follow Arena signs. After turning left off the main road, car park is on the left hand side under railway bridge. > TV AND RADIO NEWS MON 20 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Drivetime - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and a Storm player following the weekend's games - 1755 TUE 21 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Manchester Storm v Newcastle Cobras - coverage level as yet unknown - 1900 - 2200 WED 22 OCT BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - The Ice Line - Ice Hockey phone-in with Sheffield Steelers players as guests hosted by Gareth Hampshire - 1800 - 1900 FRI 24 OCT BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE 95.5/103.9FM - Lancashire Sport - Preview of Lancashire Hawks forthcoming games along with other sports previews and reviews - 1800 - 1900 FRI 24 OCT BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - Friday Night Sport - Preview of Sheffield Steelers forthcoming games - 1900 - 2000 FRI 24 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Preview of Storm's weekend games and interviews along with other sport - 1900 - 2200 SAT 25 OCT GALAXY 102FM - Galaxy Sports - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and music - 1715 - 1730 SAT 25 OCT SKY SPORTS - Ice Hockey LIVE - Live coverage of a Superleague game - 1830 - 2100 SAT 25 OCT BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Saturday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2330 - 0000 SAT 25 OCT SKY SPORTS - Ice Hockey - Full coverage of a Superleague game shown live earlier in the evening - time TBA SUN 26 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Reports from Bracknell Bees v Storm within normal Sunday night programming - 1800 - 2100 SUN 26 OCT BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Sunday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2320 - 2335 MON 27 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Drivetime - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and a Storm player following the weekend's games - 1755 TUE 28 OCT BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Manchester Storm v Sparta Prague - coverage level as yet unknown - 1900 - 2200 > 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! Visit the Storm Blitz page on Into The Storm and post the "unsubscribe" form. Alternatively you can 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 #68 *** INTO THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.intothestorm.co.uk