STORM BLITZ ISSUE #81 Monday 22 December 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail stormblitz@intothestorm.co.uk any time. There are currently 246 subscribers to Storm Blitz ------------------------------------------------ INTO THE STORM IS SPONSORED BY SOUTHERN GRAPHICS http://www.southern.northwich.com ------------------------------------------------ In this issue : * Devils thrash Storm in Cardiff * Ayr & Steelers have good wins * Storm go down in Sheffield * Bees win in Newcastle * Ayr beat Storm at Nynex * Other Thursday league and cup games * John Finnie back in Britain * Into The Storm updates * The latest from Storm Audio * Latest Superleague table * Latest Express Challenge Cup table * Forthcoming Storm games * Directions to away games * TV and Radio News * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > DEVILS THRASH STORM IN CARDIFF Storm travelled to Cardiff to face the Devils in the Superleague. The first period was goalless but Cardiff scored twice in the second from Moria and Circelli. The third period saw Storm fall away sharply with five more Cardiff goals - Thornton (2), Circelli, Matulik and McCarthy - with just one in reply from Jeff Jablonski. The 7-1 defeat cuts Storm's lead in the table to just one point from Ayr Scottish Eagles. The defeat was the biggest of the season so far. > AYR & STEELERS HAVE GOOD WINS In other Superleague games on Sunday, Ayr Scottish Eagles shutout Bracknell Bees 6-0 at the Centrum Arena. Goals from Woolf (2), Young, Groleau, Bauba and Steer put the Eagles just one point behind Storm in the Superleague table. Meanwhile Sheffield Steelers travelled to Newcastle and defeated Cobras 4-2. The victory puts Sheffield only 3 points behind leaders Storm, although they are still in 4th place. > STORM GO DOWN IN SHEFFIELD Storm travelled to Sheffield in the Express Challenge Cup on Saturday and were defeated 5-3 despite a great comeback. Scott Allison scored the first Steelers goal on 7 minutes before Tony Hand made it 2-0 shortly afterwards. Nicky Chinn made it 3-0 and Steelers looked home and dry. Mikael Wiklander then pulled a goal back for Storm. This was followed by goals from Hilton Ruggles and Stefan Ketola. Storm looked to have sent the tie to overtime, but two late goals came from Scott Allison to complete his hat-trick and deprive Storm of yet more Express Cup points. > BEES WIN IN NEWCASTLE In the Superleague on Saturday, Bracknell Bees travelled to Newcastle Cobras and defeated the bottom club 4-1. After a goalless first period, Bracknell took a 3-0 lead in the second with two goals from Gomes and one from Johnstone. Norton pulled a goal back for Newcastle in the third period to give them hope, but Crawford made it 4-1 to seal the points for the Bees. > AYR BEAT STORM AT NYNEX In front of 6637 fans at the Nynex Arena, Manchester Storm faced Express Cup leaders Ayr Scottish Eagles. With Ayr having a 100% record in this competition to date, it was always going to be a tough tie for Storm. Eric Flinton made his debut in style scoring after just 7 minutes to give Storm a 1-0 lead. Mike Morin made it 2-0 after 11 minutes and then the Ayr comeback started with ex-Storm player Shawn Byram scoring for Ayr after 13 minutes to make the score 2-1. Jamie Steer levelled the scores at 2-2 after one minute of the second period. Five minutes later, Shawn Byram put Ayr into the lead with a powerplay goal. The lead lasted just a minute before Hilton Ruggles levelled the scores at 3-3. There was no more scoring in the game until 58 minutes when the crowd were expecting overtime, Young scored the winner that kept Ayr's 100% record intact. Making his debut, Eric Flinton also won Man of the Match for Storm. > OTHER THURSDAY LEAGUE AND CUP GAMES In the Superleague on Thursday, Basingstoke Bison travelled to Sheffield Steelers and drew 4-4 after overtime. Bison took the lead on 3 minutes from a Stefan powerplay goal. Ken Priestlay levelled the scores on 8 minutes on the powerplay and then scored again four minutes later to give Steelers the lead 2-1. Black scored three minutes into the second period to equalise for Basingstoke. Sheffield went ahead again on 34 minutes - Ken Priestlay getting a "real" hat-trick. A minute later, Brown scored for Bison and made it 3-3. Just before the end of the second period, Tim Cranston put Steelers 4-3 ahead. The score remained the same until just over 2 minutes before the end of the third period when Conway scored to level the scores at 4-4. The game went to overtime but neither team could break the deadlock. Ken Priestlay won Man of the Match for Sheffield and Gallace won it for Bison. In the other Express Cup game, Cardiff Devils moved into second place in the table after defeating Nottingham Panthers 7-2. > JOHN FINNIE BACK IN BRITAIN John Finnie, the popular ex-Storm netminder, is back in Great Britain having signed for British League side Murrayfield Royals. John had been spending time in Florida since being released by Storm in the summer. > INTO THE STORM UPDATES Storm Players - Added some player information. Ice Hockey Links - Durham City Dragons link corrected. Links added for new Newcastle Cobras photos page, new unoffical Lancashire Hawks page, new unofficial Sheffield Steelers page and a new Gosport Seakings page. Guestbook - Added links to Newcastle Cobras, Lancashire Hawks and Durham City Dragons Guestbooks. Latest League Tables - Added Express logo to the page. The Express Challenge Cup - Added Express logo to the page. All the tables, results, fixtures, latest news etc have been updated as normal. > THE LATEST FROM STORM AUDIO The latest upload to STORM AUDIO includes a review of the Storm v Ayr Scottish Eagles game and features an interview with Kurt Kleinendorst. An edited version of STORM AUDIO appears each Monday evening on BBC GMR 95.1FM at 5.55pm. STORM AUDIO can be found on the Internet at http://members.aol.com/stormaudio The latest uploads to STORM AUDIO require Real Player 5.0 Beta, which can be downloaded free from the link on the STORM AUDIO Web site. > LATEST SUPERLEAGUE TABLE Pl W D OL NL +/- Points Manchester Storm 17 9 3 1 4 +20 22 Ayr Scottish Eagles 15 9 1 2 3 +17 21 Nottingham Panthers 16 9 3 0 5 +10 20 Sheffield Steelers 16 8 2 1 5 +12 19 Cardiff Devils 14 7 2 1 4 +6 17 Bracknell Bees 16 7 1 1 7 -14 16 Basingstoke Bison 15 4 3 1 7 -12 12 Newcastle Cobras 17 3 0 1 13 -39 7 Win=2; Draw=1; Overtime Loss=1; Normal Loss=0 > LATEST EXPRESS CHALLENGE CUP TABLE Pl W D OL NL +/- Points Ayr Scottish Eagles 6 6 0 0 0 +12 12 Cardiff Devils 7 4 0 0 3 +1 8 Sheffield Steelers 6 4 0 0 2 +0 8 Nottingham Panthers 5 2 0 0 3 +2 4 Bracknell Bees 4 1 1 1 1 +0 4 Basingstoke Bison 3 1 0 0 2 -2 2 Manchester Storm 4 0 1 1 2 -4 2 Newcastle Cobras 3 0 0 0 3 -9 0 Win=2; Draw=1; Overtime Loss=1; Normal Loss=0 > FORTHCOMING STORM GAMES DATE OPPONENTS F/O VENUE COMPETITION Tue 23 Dec Bracknell Bees 7.30 Away Superleague Sat 27 Dec Bracknell Bees 7.00 Home The Express CC Sun 28 Dec Ayr Scottish Eagles 6.30 Away The Express CC Tue 30 Dec Sheffield Steelers 7.30 Home The Express CC Sun 4 Jan Nottingham Panthers 6.00 Home Superleague > GETTING TO STORM AWAY GAMES The following information is taken from THE STORM SHELTER (http://www.omen1.demon.co.uk/storm/index.html) Bracknell Bees v Manchester Storm Tuesday 23 December 1997 face off 7.30 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. Ayr Scottish Eagles v Manchester Storm Sunday 28 December 1997 face off 6.30 Address Centrum Arena, Prestwick Toll, Prestwick, Ayr Telephone 0129 267 1600 Capacity 2733 Directions M6 North joining the A74 briefly before turning off towards Dumfries on the A75. After Dumfries bypass you join A76 heading for Kilmarnock. You will eventually see signs for Ayr (A70). Take a right at the first roundabout on the outskirts of Ayr. This is the A77. At next roundabout take the 2nd turn off (Heathfield ). Travel around 1.5 miles going through a small roundabout that has views of an out of town shopping complex on the right. Carry on until the 2nd set of traffic lights where you take a right turn on to Prestwick Road. Travel for around quarter of a mile. Centrum on your right, just past the Safeway Supermarket. > TV AND RADIO NEWS MON 22 DEC SKY SPORTS 1 - Ice Hockey - Full coverage of Nottingham Panthers v Bracknell Bees in the Superleague game shown the previous Saturday evening - 1430 - 1700 MON 22 DEC BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Drivetime - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and Storm players following the weekend's games - this is an edited version of STORM AUDIO - 1755 - 1800 TUE 23 DEC BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Coverage of Bracknell Bees v Manchester Storm - 1900 - 2200 TUE 23 DEC SKY SPORTS 2 - Ice Hockey LIVE - Full live coverage of Bracknell Bees v Manchester Storm in the Superleague - 1930 - 2200 WED 24 DEC SKY SPORTS 2 - Ice Hockey - Full coverage of Bracknell Bees v Manchester Storm in the Superleague game shown the previous evening - 1400 - 1630 WED 24 DEC BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - The Ice Line - Ice Hockey phone-in hosted by Gareth Hampshire - 1800 - 1900 THU 25 DEC PICCADILLY KEY 103FM - Storm news, game preview and interviews - 2030 - 2035 FRI 26 DEC 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 26 DEC BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - Friday Night Sport - Preview of the weekend's games including interviews along with other sport - 1900 - 2000 FRI 26 DEC BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Interviews, previews and news from Manchester Storm along with other sport - 1900 - 2200 SAT 27 DEC GALAXY 102FM - Galaxy Sports - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and music - 1715 - 1730 SAT 27 DEC BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Reports from Manchester Storm v Bracknell Bees within normal programming - 1900 - 2200 SAT 27 DEC BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Saturday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2330 - 0000 SUN 28 DEC BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Reports from Ayr Scottish Eagles v Manchester Storm within normal programming - 1830 - 2130 SUN 28 DEC BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Sunday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2325 - 2335 NOTE: LIVE coverage of the World Junior Championships begins on Eurosport at 2.00pm on Friday 2 January. > 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 stormblitz@intothestorm.co.uk 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 #81 *** E-mail STORM BLITZ at: stormblitz@intothestorm.co.uk INTO THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.intothestorm.co.uk