The Storm welcomed the Guildford Flames on Friday night with Critchlow’s side looking to fend off the Flames who sit just one place below in the league standings.

A fast and furious opening period saw both teams looking to gain an early advantage. Despite plenty of shots on net and a late powerplay opportunity neither goalie was beaten in a hard-hitting playoff esq style of hockey.

The deadlock was broken six minutes in to period number two as a back door, back hand shot by Preziuso beat DeRidder down low. The Storm responded well with some hard forechecking, forcing a string of saves from Burman in the Flames net. Tempers flared in the later stages of the period as three separate altercations resulted in over twenty minutes of fighting and roughing penalties. The score remained 1-0 to the visitors heading in to the intermission, setting up a blockbuster final third.

The Flames doubled their lead just thirty seconds in to the new period when Brown ripped a strong slapshot from the blueline, with assists from Busch and Jacome. Hinam came closest to halving the deficit as his fast wrist shot rang off the crossbar. Brown struck again for the Flames however – in similar fashion to his first with a heavy shot from the blueline, putting his team up by three. Storm eventually found a way past Burman when Nardi converted from close range on the powerplay, assisted by Gilmour and Welsh in the build-up. With less than two minutes remaining Critchlow rolled the dice and pulled DeRidder, but Strang picked up a loose pass and found the net from long range. The Flames would go on to add another through Gosselin to record a hard fought 5-1 road win.