Manchester Storm Women remain top of the WNIHL 2 North Elizabeth table, following their 9-4 home victory against Leeds Thorns at Planet Ice Altrincham this Saturday evening.
With two more games to go in the regular league season, Storm Women made sure to remain in the driving seat, as their victory against Leeds leaves them on 25 points, four points ahead of second-placed Caledonia Steel Queen Bees, who have two games in hand.
If the Edinburgh side wins both of their games in hand, they will be equal on points with Storm, who they will be playing at Planet Ice on the 9th of May.
Lizzie Umarova, Storm player and university student, said:
“At the end, it’s going to come down to goal difference between the top two teams, I think. And now it’s us and Caledonia. So, it’s really nerve-wracking because one of our last games of the season is going to be against them, which is obviously going to decide who’s going to win the league.”
Storm’s goals came from five different scorers, including Storm Academy graduate Jessica Thorpe and current Academy player Jessica Burns, who both got two goals to their name in this game.
The founding of Storm Women in 2024 was in part to give academy graduates a place to play senior hockey, instead of having to look for another club or stop playing altogether. But the team has also welcomed a variety of profiles.
“A lot of people on the team have played since they were kids,” said Umarova. “We have a lot of girls who are still playing for the Storm Academy. But we also have a lot of adults who started at the same age as me or even later sometimes.
“At one point, I was like, I actually want to play, I don’t just want to watch anymore. And I was discouraged a lot of the time because people were saying, ‘Oh, it’s too late to start’. But actually, it doesn’t really matter because if you’re enjoying it, that’s all that matters. And I think it’s really fun to see yourself grow.”
Although the team has been scoring plenty of goals this season, they still have areas to improve, such as their defence and ability to deal with counterattacks, as seen by the four goals conceded to the Thorns.
Storm Women still are a work in progress, but the ambition for the club is big. In late March, the club announced that they have officially expressed interest to the WNIHL to enter a second team into the league for the upcoming 2026/27 season.
Wesley Spurrett, general manager of Manchester Storm Women, said:
“We’ve had a number of players come to us, who could just about skate and not a lot else, and who are now playing league hockey a year later. So that’s what we want to be able to do.
“We want to completely develop players from watching Storm games, want to be a hockey player, all the way up to, hopefully, the team that continues to get promoted, develop, and improve, and that sort of thing, and what it looks like will literally just be a development path.”
Manchester Storm fans are progressively getting behind the women’s team, showing up in numbers to the home games. As these games are free entry, there is no numerical record of attendance. However, the 150-odd fans present on Saturday made themselves heard, with drummers in the stands starting the crowd’s chants.
“We thought it was just going to be family and friends turning up to watch some hockey games,” said Spurrett. “But we’ve had the rink reach out and say that we now need to start getting security in because there’s so many people turning up to watch and that sort of thing.”
Storm Women played most of their home games this season on Saturday evenings at Planet Ice Altrincham, which has proved to be an advantageous timeslot that has boosted interest and attendance.
“Thanks to Planet Ice, we have Saturday night slots, which is unheard of,” said Spurrett. We have Saturday night at seven o’clock where families can come and watch a sport, competitive sport for free.
“I’ve been watching hockey since I was very young. I’ve always said, as soon as you get somebody in the door, you’ve got them hooked.”
Storm Women have two more league games this season before the 2025/26 WNIHL playoffs at iceSheffield in early June.