City Altrincham, England General manager Neil Russell Arena/Stadium Altrincham Ice Dome Owner Mark Johnson | Home arena Silver Blades Ice Rink Head coach Omar Pacha Captain Trevor Johnson Founded 2015 | |
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League Elite Ice Hockey League Colours White, Purple, Black, & Yellow Location Altrincham, United Kingdom Profiles | ||
The Manchester Storm are a British, professional ice hockey team founded in 2015. They are members of the Elite Ice Hockey League and are based at the Silver Blades Ice Rink in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
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History
The original Manchester Storm team were founded in 1995 and were owned by the operators of the newly-opened Manchester Arena. The Storm won the First Division championship in their inaugural season, before becoming a founding member of the Ice Hockey Superleague in 1996. The Storm won the league championship in the 1998–99 season, before capturing the Autumn Cup the following season. The Storm drew many large crowds, breaking the British attendance record for a match against the Sheffield Steelers during the 1996–97 season. The original Storm were forced to close in 2002 after financial problems.
The Manchester Phoenix were formed in 2003. They were founder members of the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), but moved to the English Premier League in 2009 due to financial reasons. Initially playing out of the Manchester Arena, the Phoenix would eventually relocate to the Altrincham Ice Dome.
At the end of the 2014–15 season, a legal dispute arose between the management of the Altrincham Ice Dome and the Phoenix team over alleged financial impropriety regarding junior teams at the venue. Around the same time, the Hull Stingrays of the Elite Ice Hockey League withdrew from the EIHL. The management of the Altrincham Ice Dome and the EIHL subsequently reached an agreement to place a team in Altrincham to fill the gap created by Hull’s liquidation. This team was to be the newly-reformed Manchester Storm.
First Season (2015–16)
On 26 June 2015, the Storm announced their first two pre-season games against the Nottingham Panthers and old rivals the Sheffield Steelers. Owner Mark Johnson posted via Twitter saying fans wearing original jerseys to the matches from the previous Manchester Storm team would be rewarded with something to take home. On the same day it was made public that the newly-reformed Storm had signed their first two players: Team GB defenceman Dave Phillips and Matty Davies, who would both play in the coming season.
The Storm competed in their first match in over 13 years on 29 August 2015 in a friendly against the Nottingham Panthers. The Manchester side led by GM Neil Russell, previously with the Belfast Giants, came away victors with a 5-4 win after a penalty shootout with the first goal scored by the newly-formed side coming from forward Vinny Scarsella. Despite the side taking a win, behind the scenes the Storm had yet to recruit a full team and were plagued with other issues such as waiting on signed imports to arrive in the UK as well as visas to be approved.
The following evening the Storm played away in another friendly against the 2014–15 EPIHL champions the Peterborough Phantoms. The Storm won again with a 7–3 victory with four goals coming from Manchester Storm forward Vinny Scarsella.
The first competitive league match took place on Saturday 5 September 2015. The Storm hosted Scottish side the Edinburgh Capitals. The game ended with the Storm winning 8–1 including a hat-trick by Luke Salazar.
On Sunday 7 February 2016, the Storm set a league record in an away league match against the Edinburgh Capitals. The game ended in a 13–9 win for the Manchester side making it the highest scoring league game on record.
During the course of the season several players such as Gal Koren, Jamie Chilcott and Matt Caria departed from Manchester due to varying reasons. This, however, led to the signings of players such as Devin DiDiomete, locally-born Paul Swindlehurst and Derek Roehl who would all help bring a different dynamic to the team as opposed to player-coach Omar Pacha's idea of a squad built on speed. The Storm narrowly missed out on making the 2015-2016 playoffs finishing 9th in the league above last-placed Edinburgh Capitals.
Second Season (2016–17)
The Manchester-side announced two signings following the end of the regular season: player-coach Omar Pacha re-signed for the following 2016–17 season and Team GB new-comer Jack Prince would also help add to the side coming straight from a four-year-stint of NCAA ice hockey for the University of Alabama–Huntsville.
Returning players include defensemen Paul Phillips and Paul Swindlehurst along with forward Patrik Valcak.