Braehead play a Stormer to seal the deal Campaign off to flying start
Craig Ritchie
Braehead Clan got their new campaign off to a winning start as they thumped former head coach Ryan Finnerty’s team 7-5 in the Challenge Cup opener.
Finnerty brought his Manchester Storm side north on Saturday supplemented by a number of former Clan players but it was John Tripp’s men that came away the victory in the first clash.
The hosts got off to a scoring start as a Storm penalty saw Clan have the advantage on the powerplay. And Clan quickly seized the advantage through Mike Embach as he fired home following Jacob Doty’s assist.
They were soon two ahead, again on the powerplay, as Doty struck home the rebound from Matt Haywood’s initial shot which was saved by Storm goalkeeper Mike Clemente inbetween the sticks.
Storm soon started to find their rhythm and were back on the scoresheet as two ex-Clan men, Mike Hammond and Matt Beca linked up as the former struck to get Manchester back into the clash.
The visitor’s were soon level on a powerplay of their own as a Matt Bissonnette shot gave Ryan Nie no chance of stopping in the Clan goal.
Goal-line technology was then needed for the first time ever to determine whether a Manchester chance had crossed the line, which it hadn’t, as Clan breathed a huge sigh of relief.
However, it proved to be a stay of execution for Tripp’s side as Dane Byers quickly added another powerplay goal for Clan, with Beca again providing the assist.
Into the second period and Clan were the side to come out fighting, levelling the scores quickly thanks to another Embach effort.
They then went ahead after Embach’s effort rebounded off of Clemente and into the path of