A hugely entertaining derby between Manchester and Sheffield saw the visitors take the decision, 5-4 in overtime.

A packed Storm Shelter was witness to a pulsating opening period as the bitter rivals went full tilt at one another. A penalty shot awarded to Sheffield was the first major scoring opportunity which presented itself, in the 9th minute, but a good save by Lavigne denied the deking McNally. However, a couple minutes later the Steelers would find themselves infront courtesy of a Dowd deflection. Less than a minute, parity would be resorted after a lovely exchange between Simmonds and Barrow set the in-form Orvhall through to convert from the slot.

A well-worked powerplay goal by the Steelers got the scoring underway in the middle stanza, as the visitors retook the lead. They would quickly double this advantage through a snipe from Ciampini, in the 27th minute. A wonderful individual move and set-up by Bricknell put it on a platter for Ulrick to convert with aplomb, as the Storm fought their way back into the encounter by cutting their arrears to just one-goal.

Unfortunately, another short-handed goal given up by the hosts, in the 37th minute, restored Sheffield’s two-goal cushion heading into the last twenty minutes of action. Until a major penalty assessed against Petgrave presented the Storm with a prolonged 5on3 opportunity which eventually would be converted by the man of the moment, Anthony DeLuca, before the close of the middle period.

A tense start to the final period saw both sides creating few chances of note until the aforementioned DeLuca scored his second of the night to square things at four apiece. A typically opportunistic finish by the new Storm signing almost lifted the roof of the now raucous Shelter with just over ten minutes remaining.

However, the remaining time in regulation would not produce another goal and overtime would be required to split the rivals on this occasion. On this occasion, it would be Sheffield that would take the spoils via a Robert Dowd tap-in at the backpost midway through overtime.