Melbourne's mid-season resurgence has continued with the Storm coming out on top against Canberra in a try-scoring frenzy that included a hat-trick from winger Will Warbrick.
This year's club record seven-game losing streak appears to be in the rear view mirror for Melbourne with the 42-20 victory, but the Raiders' hopes of making the NRL finals are fading badly after their 10th defeat.
Both teams scored four tries in the first half of their Sunday afternoon clash to be locked at 20-20 at halftime.
The Raiders got off to the best possible start and took a 16-0 lead after 16 minutes with Savelio Tamale, Owen Pattie and Xavier Savage all crossing.
Winger Savage couldn't be caught as he raced downfield after intercepting a pass from Melbourne's Jack Howarth 10 metres from the tryline.
"When it was 16-0, that wasn't obviously the way we wanted to start," said Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
"You just got to think about what's important for us now to steady our game, and, obviously we've done that really well and pulled away at the end, so really proud of the guys."
The tide turned when Harry Grant entered the match after starting from the bench following Wednesday's Origin win for Queensland.
With the superstar hooker gaining metres from dummy-half, the Storm scored three tries in six minutes including one to Cameron Munster, celebrating his 250th NRL match.
Centre Matthew Timoko bumped off some flimsy defence to again put Canberra ahead but the Storm tied up the match in the 39th minute when Warbrick scored his second of the half, using brute strength to plant the ball.
While the Raiders had plenty of possession, they did themselves no favours in missing a whopping 39 tackles in the opening 40 minutes and 58 for the match.
Canberra's coach Ricky Stuart didn't think that stat was their biggest flaw, blaming errors and penalties.
"I thought it was going to be an 80 minute game but it turned into a 60 minute game," he said.
"I was disappointed with, some of the penalties that we gave away. Sometimes some people just don't learn - just some really stupid penalties we gave away, gave them field position and they scored off it."
The second half was more of an arm wrestle with Warbrick breaking the deadlock in the 59th minute with his third try, the Warriors-bound flyer leaping high to take a Jahrome Hughes bomb.
"I thought he ran the ball really strongly as well. He's a big strong athlete, and just ability in the air on the kicks is second to none really," Bellamy said of the Storm winger.
"He was certainly a big difference for us tonight."
A converted try from Moses Leo opened a 10-point lead for the home side and while there was still 10 minutes to play the Storm never looked like surrendering.
They put the result beyond doubt with another two tries to bank their fifth win in six games, with milestone man Munster kicking the final conversion - with his boot lace untied.
Melbourne moved up to 11th on the ladder on 16 points while the Raiders sit second-last.
