Heading into last weekends final two fixtures of the season the Rays didn't know the who their opponents would be in the all important playoff quarter final with the Sheffield Steelers, Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants still scrapping it out for the Elite League title and the runner up their fateful opponent in the playoff first round.
Despite that mazey and, at times, unbelievable run, Cardiff eventually missed out on their first EIHL league championship to the Sheffield by way of slimmest margins, losing out on the regulation wins first tie breaker after both sides ended the season on 87 points.
Therefore, in a cruel twist of fate for Sylvain Cloutier's side, instead of facing a Sheffield team that they have beaten both home and away in the past season, the Rays are paired up with Cardiff - a team they have claimed just a solitary point from and scored just 14 goals against in eight meetings this year.
If that poor head-to-head record isn't bad enough, the Devils - who earlier in the year set a world record for consecutive wins in the sport at 22 - are still likely reeling from the fact that the league title slipped agonisingly from their grasp and into their fiercest rivals hands, perhaps making them even more determined not to end a good year empty handed.
Of course by now the Stingrays squad don't need anyone to explain enormity of the task that faces them after losing eight on the spin against the Devils.
Losing seven consecutive games against one opponent is maybe no big issue in a league with a reasonably sizeable gap between the haves and have not's. Delve a little deeper into results between the two sides and only then do you begin to realise the true size of the Stingrays ask.
Having opened the season on 3 October with a very encouraging 3-3 tie, the Stingrays were then soundly beaten 7-4 away and 4-2 at home at the hands of the Devils towards the end of the month.
Things would get worse in November, a lot worse, as Cloutier's men were royally thumped 12-0 in South Wales in the most embarrassing of circumstances, live on Sky Sports with incoming player-assistant coach Drew Bannister making his much anticipated debut for the club.
Following that record defeat in the top flight, it initially appeared that the Stingrays luck against Gerad Adams team would change in 2011 as they lost 4-1 in January before they went down 3-1 in February. However, 6-1 and 7-2 losses in the final month of the season sealed the head-to-head series comprehensively in favour of the Devils at 0-8-1 and ended the Stingrays chances of obtaining a clean sweep over Elite League opposition this season with Cardiff the only side they failed to beat.
Nevertheless, forgetting all that has gone before, the Rays are just 120 minutes away from against all odds qualifying for the Nottingham final weekend, and as unlikely as that seems, it is still possible.
It was possible last year too, when - in their first ever EIHL playoff appearance - they took on a Coventry Blaze team that had scored 46 goals against them in nine wins from ten fixtures.
In a tight fought but buzzing first playoff game at the Hull Arena for four years, first took on eighth, and to the surprise of many, the eighth placed Rays held champions Coventry to a 2-1 lead heading into the second leg at the Skydome.
In the end a shocker of a first period, in which they conceded three goals, eventually cost the Rays dear as they lost out 4-1 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate. But for that awful first period showing they may have had a chance in hell.
Top performances right across the board are required for the full 120 minutes but if a similarly tight first leg were to ensue this year, or if the Rays were able to get that nine game old monkey off their back and actually taste victory against the Devils in Hull, then they could once again have a chance in hell of progressing to the promised land in what would become a massive second leg.
Go Stingrays
