Manchester Storm 3, Cardiff Devils 3 MANCHESTER Storm's first Superleague fixture saw them host last season's champions Cardiff Devils in front of nearly 10,000 in the Nynex Arena.

Storm came from behind three times with goals from Domenic Maltais, Kris Miller and Mikael Wiklander to force sudden death overtime against the Welsh side but, couldn't force a winner past Derek Herlofsky.

Devils, arriving without captain Ivan Matulik and two defencemen, suffered another loss midway through the second period as starting netminder Frank

Caprice suffered a minor concussion in a collision as Storm scored their second equaliser at 32:19. His replacement Herlofsky proved a worthy reserve

saving 20 of the 21 shots he faced.

Devils led through a Steve Thornton powerplay goal in the first period cancelled out by Maltais early in the second. Devils retook the lead on a breakaway goal from Brent Pope before Kris Miller poked home Storm's second equaliser in the scramble which saw Caprice hurt. Cardiff, playing an effective defensive trap system, stole the lead for a third time when Ken Hodge lifted a backhand shot past Jim Hrivnak at 36:14.

A tight third period saw Herloksky shine in the visitors goal before Storm got the tying goal on a powerplay strike with Wiklander hitting an unstoppable shot at 53:04. Storm had Stefan Ketola ejected shortly afterwards on a 5+game penalty for spearing and the game went to sudden death overtime. Storm dominated the extra 10 minutes but, Herlofsky kept them at bay and a see-saw game ended level.

Storm now face difficult road trips to Nottingham, Bracknell, Basingstoke and Sparta Prague before the home leg of their B&H cup quarter final against Bracknell on October 18th.

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