Ice hockey: Knights aim to ride out Storm

THE LONDON Knights coach, Jim Fuyarchuk, believes Manchester Storm can be beaten despite a seemingly relentless march towards the Sekonda Superleague title.

Storm are six points clear and have a game in hand on the second-placed Cardiff Devils, whose challenge has faltered in recent weeks with five defeats in their last six games.

Manchester's lead has been built on the back of five successive victories and a record-breaking 18-match winning run at the MEN Arena. But Fuyarchuk, whose Knights team prop up the league and have the second worst home record behind Bracknell Bees, refuses to concede the title race is over and that tonight's game at the Docklands Arena is a foregone conclusion.

He said: "I think they can be stopped from winning the league title. Why not? There are so many things that could go wrong. The roof could cave in on them just like it did to us. You get half a dozen injuries and all of a sudden it changes the whole complexion of the line-up.

"You then get a bit of bad luck, a couple of bad bounces, you drop a couple of games and then the momentum is taken away. But they've got great strength in depth, great balance, they're playing with confidence, while we're riddled with inconsistency.

"If we can put together a couple of wins it adds to our own confidence and we generate our own momentum again.

"People will be looking at the game and thinking Manchester will win, but nothing would be sweeter than coming up with an upset win over them. It's about time somebody did."

The other game tonight is Ayr Scottish Eagles at home to Sheffield Steelers, who are still involved in takeover talks with two potential buyers.