The youngster, who has been used sparingly in six Rays games so far this season, has spent all season training with both the Stingrays and the English National League Kingston Jets, where he had registered nine goals and seven assists in 17 games.
His signing suggests that Cloutier has admitted defeat in his attempt to sign Sheffield Scimitars forward James Archer on a permanent basis following the Sheffield-born players impressive performances during his five two-way appearances so far this season in which he has netted three goals and an assist.
While Archer will still be on Cloutier's radar for next season, he has now moved on to fill the gap left by Shaun Thompson's departure to Basingstoke with Lowe, who will give the Stingrays some further depth following injury to previous depth signing Aivars Gaisins, who appeared in just two Rays games before breaking his hand in Belfast on Thursday.
Lowe was handed his first real ice time in Sunday's win over Newcastle, after Gaisins injury and illness struck Adam Knight pre-game, and the youngster performed well on a line with fellow Kingston trained youngsters Matty Davies and Lee Esders, perhaps feeling he could have scored his first goal for the club in the second period with a big chance that was saved by Vipers keeper Michel Robinson.
Sylvain Cloutier admitted that he has been improving all year long and that he was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the slight forward agianst the Vipers:
"I am really pleased to have Ben in the line-up for the rest of the season. He has been practicing with us all season and you can see the improvement he has made. He wants to get better and we want to help make him a better player. It's nice to have another local talent in the line-up - you always want to help and make the young local guys into better hockey players.
Ben did a great job against Newcastle. With Knighter [Adam Knight] out he gave us another pair of leg. He could have just sat on the bench but we gave him a chance to see what he could do and he did nothing wrong. he can skate, has some speed and has good hands. He can only get better."
