Manchester Storm 2 Fife Flyers 3 (OT): Finucci has the 'Force' on Star Wars night

Fife had an excellent opening period after the journey down to Manchester – Tim Crowder converted at the back post from brother Paul’s feed to give the Flyers the lead at 3:43, and 52 seconds before the end of the period the brothers combined again with Paul this time scoring to double the lead.

The only goal of the middle period came at 33:15 with Cody Thompson poking home from close range after Tyson Fawcett’s shot was originally saved by Adam Morrison - setting up a one-goal game for the third.

Manchester had a goal washed out on video review at the start of period three as the net was out of position.

However, the Storm troopers would equalise in dramatic fashion with only four seconds left to play. with Layne Ulmer’s cool finish in the slot raising the roof of the Storm Shelter.

The home side’s joy at earning themselves a point, however, was somewhat dampened by Carlo Finucci who sent the travelling Fife fans wild with the overtime with 2:24 into the extra period.

He embarked on a solo mission into the Storm zone before sending a backhand effort past Ginn to seal a valuable two points.

Reflecting ona closely fought game, Fife head coach Todd Dutiaume said: “We have a close history together and always get involved in these battles.

“Our first period was immense.

“After that Manchester weren’t going to lie down and take it, and some bad habits crept into our game.

”But we showed good resilince tonight an dheld them off until four seconds left, which was unfortunate.”

Storm head coach Ryan Finnerty added: “I thought we dominated for the majority of the night.

“We had just under 50 shots on net but ran into a pretty good goalie.

“We take the point and move on.”