MANCHESTER Storm defenceman Dwight Parrish says he is considering pursuing a career in teaching once his days as an ice hockey player are over.

But that's not to say Storm's goal-shy forwards could not learn something from Parrish now. The former Cardiff ace has found the goalscoring touch he never knew he had this term with eight goals so far - a stark contrast to last season with the Devils, when he only managed to get on the scoresheet once.

His sharpness in front of goal prompted a few jokes in the dressing room early on in the campaign, but now it is Parrish, currently the club's fourth top scorer, who is having the last laugh.

The 29-year-old from Michigan even has one goal more than Storm's player-of-the-year last season, Trevor Gallant, who responded only with a wry smile when reminded of that small detail this week.

''The lads have had a laugh and a joke about it, especially at the beginning of the season,'' Parrish said.

''I know the forwards will eventually pass me, the guys who are known for scoring are starting to score a lot more now so I'll probably start moving further down the line which is fine, but it's been fun so far.

''We've only five defencemen this season and I've been on the powerplay unlike last year so it's allowed me to jump into the play a bit more which is great.

''As long as I keep playing well defensively then that's fine. If the defensive side of my game starts to suffer because I'm playing too offensively then that's no good, but I do like being on the powerplay.

Confident

''At first I was a little leery, a little nervous about playing on the powerplay, but now I'm really confident and it definitely seems to have helped my game.''

Storm are unbeaten in three games now since the turn of the year and will be looking to extend that run in a double header against Ayr this weekend - although Parrish is still ruing the draw with Bracknell last Sunday.

''We've started the New Year as we hoped, but I'm a little disappointed we didn't beat Bracknell, it was a point dropped rather than a point earned,'' he said.

''We outplayed them for most of the game and were 2-1 up, but we made some silly mistakes and let them back in the game.

''We did come back from 3-2 down and at least got a point though. When we went behind before we didn't know what to do, but as we proved against London and then Bracknell on Sunday we have the confidence to come back now.

''It's good to be playing back-to-back games against Ayr. We won last time we were up there and at home, but they'll be ready for us, they'll be tough matches.''

Parrish, who spent four years moving between the AHL, IHL and ECHL in North America before joining Cardiff, loves the British lifestyle and would relish the chance to return to Manchester next season.

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