It was bottom versus top at Bretton tonight but despite shipping 17 goals last weekend, Penguins were in no mood to roll over and make it easy against a side that has only lost once since last November.
Storm opened the scoring just after the ten minute mark but Sara Dawson pounced to tie the game less than two minutes later. With netminder Steph Owen facing a combined 41 shots over the first two periods, it was no surprise that Storm eased away to lead 4-1 by the game’s midpoint but it wasn’t going all their way as Sharon Khan scored unassisted to keep the game alive at 2-4 at the second break.
Period three saw the league leaders launching several kitchen sinks at Penguins goal but great D backstopped by outstanding netminding kept them at bay and the home side dared to dream at 48:18 when captain Clare Ledbury scored to make it 3-4 for a grandstand finish but the impressive Parris Moore killed off their hopes with a straight hat-trick marker at 50:43 to take the game 3-5.
With fifteen players dressed for Penguins, they once again proved that given a level ice-pad in terms of skater numbers then they can compete with the very best in the league as they did tonight. The performance combined the usual effort and determination with smart tactical play and will probably count as the best performance of the season to date.
Tomorrow night, a much shorter bench will travel down to a Cardiff side that have won five of their last six but even they only put one past Streatham in their last game so there is at least some basis for optimism ….. good luck girls !
Game stats HERE