The Flyers welcomed as their First foots for 2026 the Manchester Storm who were also making their first visit of the season to Fife Ice Arena. The hosts were still without the injured trio of Jeremy Masella, David Booth and Josh Winquist and gave the start in net to Shane Owen. The Storm started Drew Deridder in goal and scratched Chase Harrison, Dallas Ehrhardt, Joseph Nardi, Zach Sullivan and Evan Weninger.
Owen was first to be called into action as he blockered away a shot from Brendon Clavelle in the 2nd minute but the visitors recycled the puck and moved it around some static defending in the Fife zone for Nick Welsh to fire it into the net at 2:18 to give Storm the lead. Immediately after the incident Garet Hunt and Dante Hannoun clashed with the Fife man throwing a punch to leave the Storm player on the ice. After review the Flyers captain was assessed a 5 minute plus game penalty for being the aggressor in a fight. The Storm powerplay was slow to get momentum but Simon Despres did block a shot off to the side of the net before the Storm doubled their advantage at 4:55 as they went strongly to the net and Dennis Busby supplied the finish as he guided the puck underneath Owen. The Flyers completed the remainder of the kill. In the 8th minute Mason Alderson went to the net and his tip from the edge of the crease went narrowly wide of the post. The Flyers were moving the puck well and in the 10th minute they swept down the ice and Deridder made a stick save on a shot from Johan Porsberger. A minute later and Deridder was at full stretch as Milan Lucic tried to stuff the puck home at the back door but it wouldn’t go. The Flyers went on their first powerplay of the game in the 14th minute as Brady Gilmour was sent to the bin for tripping Alderson. Ian Scheid had a shot from the blueline gloved by Deridder before a one timer by Porsberger was deflected over the crossbar by the Storm goalie. The pipe came to the visitors rescue after nice set up play by the Flyers but Giordano Finoro was out of luck as he clanged the post at the back door and the Storm returned to full strength. The Storm pushed for another goal late in the period as Owen denied Stephen Johnson with a pad save before a double save on J.D. Dudek in the final minute kept the deficit at two.
Inside the opening minute of the second period Deridder gloved a shot from the blueline by Anton Karlsson and moments later Ethan Somoza saw his shot turned away by the stick of the Storm goalie. The Storm went back on the powerplay in the 22nd minute as Scheid was called for interference. The man advantage for Storm was doubled as Jonas Emmerdahl was sent to the box for a cross check with the Storm having 100 seconds of 5 on 3. Owen tracked a shot from Welsh to make save and followed that up with a stop on the rebound too as the Flyers returned to four skaters before going on to kill the remainder of the penalty without a great deal of difficulty. In the 25th minute the puck fell for Logan Neilson and with Deridder scrambling about his crease his shot hit a body in front of the net to deflect wide. Neilson threatened again in the 28th minute as Deridder held his shot from the high slot before Finoro fired just wide of the cage moments later. In the 32nd minute Busby took the puck down low but Owen sealed everything on the short side to make the save. The visitors blew a great chance a minute later as they made the wrong pass selection on a 3 on 1 break and didn’t even get a shot on net. Lucic behind the net in the 34th minute set up Justin Ducharme out front but Deridder was square to the shot. Keaton Jameson broke in all alone on the Storm goal in the 35th minute but blew his shot over the crossbar. A spinorama from Tyler Hinam in the 38th minute forced a stick save by Owen and the Flyers went the other way with Finoro again cursing the hockey gods as his shot pinged the crossbar.
In the 42nd minute Hinam found himself with all sorts of space in the slot and with the net gaping he shot straight at Owen. Lucic then had a snapshot from the circles held up high by Deridder before the Flyers went back on the man advantage in the 44th minute as Johnson was penalised for a trip. The Flyers were unable to get anything set up on their powerplay as the Storm returned to full strength without giving up a shot on their net. The visitors however were immediately penalised as Kyle Locke got the gate for a hook and this time the home side made their numerical advantage count. Some nice interplay with Ducharme and Neilson set up Lucic who blew the puck threw Deridder from below the circles at 46:29. The Flyers pressed and in the 50th minute with the Storm net under siege the puck just wouldn’t drop for Jameson and the Storm scrambled the puck away from danger. Owen came up with a huge save in the 53rd minute as he denied Gilmor at the edge of his crease and the Flyers went the other way to tie the score. A give and go between Jameson and Karlsson saw the big Swede drift into the slot and on the backhand he fired the puck into the net just inside the post. Owen came up big again on the restart as he stoned Brandon Cutler down low. Despres up supporting the attack in the 56th minute set up Lucic but his tip on net was blocked by Deridder at the post. The Flyers got their noses in front at 56:54 with a sweeping move down ice that was perfectly finished by Scheid who went to the net and tipped a great pass from Somoza into the top corner. The Storm called a time out and pulled for Deridder for the extra skater with just under 2 minutes to play but the Flyers broke up the play and an ariel pass from Lucic was skated on to by Finoro who finished into the empty net to give the Flyers a 4-2 lead at 58:52. The Storm a goal back just 13 seconds later as a stray pass in the Flyers zone allowed Haden to beat Owen from the low slot after the Flyers keeper had made a great initial save. The Storm were able to pull the goalie again and remarkably they got the puck to the front of the Flyers net and it went in behind Owen with less than a second on the clock with the goal being confirmed after a video review.
The overtime period produced few clear cut chances with the save of note going to Deridder who came way out of his crease to play the puck and he found Scheid in the Fife zone who returned the puck on net and the Storm goalie had to scramble to make a stick save midway inside his own zone.
In the shootout the Storm were clinical and scored three of their four attempts with Haden being credited with the winner.
Pic Credits – Jillian McFarlane and Derek Young
Fife Flyers are next at home on Saturday 10th January when they entertain the Sheffield Steelers – tickets can be bought online here: Tickets – Fife Flyers or look out on social media channels for box office opening times.
