EIHL fixtures announced; Rays start with 12/13 treble winners

The Hull Stingrays will begin their 2013/2014 Elite Ice Hockey League campaign on Saturday 7th September against reigning Elite League, Challenge Cup and Playoff champions the Nottingham Panthers it was revealed today.

Meanwhile, the club also announced today pre-season fixtures against Elite League rivals the Coventry Blaze and the English Premier League's Sheffield Steeldogs.

Unsurprisingly, upon announcing the 13/14 fixture list, the Elite League confirmed that they would continue with last season's preferred two-conference format with every team playing sides in their own conference four times home and away, and sides in the opposing conference twice home and away.

The Challenge Cup format also remains unchanged with the Stingrays again in Group B alongside the Cardiff Devils, Coventry Blaze, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers - whom they will play once home and away.

The Rays will open and close their pre-season preparations against Mathias Soderstrom's Coventry side on Wednesday 28th August (Coventry Skydome) and Wednesday 4th September (Hull Arena) respectively, with games against Andre Payette's second tier Steeldogs side sandwiched inbetween on Thursday 29th August (Ice Sheffield) and Sunday 1st September (Hull Arena).

Three days after their final warm-up fixture on Saturday 7th September, the Stingrays will travel to Nottingham to open up the regular season in the toughest possible fashion against the 12/13 treble winners and 13/14 favourites for the title, the Nottingham Panthers.

Sylvain Cloutier's side follow up that baptism of fire with their first home fixture of the regular season against  the Braehead Clan in Ryan Finnety's second game as head coach.

The club's tough start to the season doesn't end there though as they face Erhardt Conference sides five times in their opening seven games in September - thanks mostly to to their grouping in the Challenge Cup, which admittedly brings other advantages.

Their challenge for the Gardiner Conference kicks in during October with six of their eight fixtures against conference rivals and it continues in November and December as they meet Erhardt Conference sides just four times in 17 games.

Once again, Stingrays will travel to Scotland - where they really struggled on their travels last term - on 14 occasions including two weekends north of the border on 7th and 8th December against Fife and Edinburgh, and 11th and 12th January against Braehead and Edinburgh.

By 12th October's meeting with the Fife Flyers, the club will have faced every Elite League side.

Other notable weekends include home and home weekends against the Dundee Stars (5/6 October), Edinburgh Capitals (26/27 October) and Coventry Blaze (2/3 November).

In the final five weeks of the season the Stingrays will face-off against the Dundee Stars and Sheffield Steelers three times apiece, ending the regular season on Sunday 23rd March at the Hull Arena against their Yorkshire rivals Sheffield.

Meanwhile, as far as the home fixture breakdown is concerned, the Saturday night is most certainly hockey night in Hull this season with 16 Saturday night face-off's, ten on Sunday and four on Wednesday.

Hull Stingrays Fixture List - Elite Ice Hockey League 13/14 

August 2013

2 Pre-season

2 Away

1 Erhardt Conference, 1 EPL

Wed 28th - Coventry Blaze (A) - PS
Thu 29th - Sheffield Steeldogs (A) - PS

September

2 Pre-season, 3 League, 3 Challenge Cup, 1 League/Challenge Cup

5 Home, 3 Away

1 EPL, 6 Erhardt Conference, 2 Gardiner Conference

Sun 1st - Sheffield Steeldogs (H) - PS

Wed 4th - Coventry Blaze (H) - PS
Sat 7th - Nottingham Panthers (A) - L/CC
Sun 8th - Braehead Clan (H) - L

Sun 15th - Cardiff Devils (H) - CC

Wed 18th - Sheffield Steelers (A) - CC
Sat 21st - Edinburgh Capitals (H) - L
Sun 22nd - Coventry Blaze (A) - CC

Sun 29th - Belfast Giants (H) - L

October

6 League, 2 Challenge Cup

4 Home, 4 Away

6 Gardiner Conference, 2 Erhardt Conference

Sat 5th - Dundee Stars (H) - L
Sun 6th - Dundee Stars (A) - L

Sat 12th - Fife Flyers (A) - L
Sun 13th - Nottingham Panthers (H) - CC

Sat 19th - Dundee Stars (H) L

Sat 26th - Edinburgh Capitals (A) L
Sun 27th - Edinburgh Capitals (H) - L

Thu 31th - Cardiff Devils (A) - CC

November 

6 League, 2 Challenge Cup

4 Home, 4 Away

6 Gardiner Conference, 2 Erhardt Conference

Sat 2nd - Coventry Blaze (H) - CC
Sun 3rd - Coventry Blaze (A) - L

Sat 9th - Belfast Giants (H) - L
Sun 10th - Cardiff Devils (A) - L

Sat 16th - Braehead Clan (A) - L

Sat 23th - Cardiff Devils (H) - L
Sun 24th - Edinburgh Capitals (A) - L

Sat 30th - Sheffield (H) - CC

December

9 League

4 Home, 5 Away

7 Gardiner Conference, 2 Erhardt Conference

Sun 1st - Braehead Clan (H) - L

Sat 7th - Fife Flyers (A) - L
Sun 8th - Edinburgh Capitals(A) - L

Thu 12th - Dundee Stars (A) - L
Sat 14th - Edinburgh Capitals (H) - L

Sat 21st - Nottingham Panthers (H) - L
Sun 22nd - Fife Flyers (A) - L

Sat 28th Edinburgh Capitals (H) - L

Mon 30th - Belfast Giants (A) - L

January 2014

10 League

4 Home, 6 Away

6 Gardiner Conference, 4 Erhardt Conference

Thu 2nd - Sheffield Steelers (A) - L
Sat 4th - Coventry Blaze (A) - L
Sun 5th - Fife Flyers (H) - L

Sat 11th - Braehead Clan (A) - L
Sun 12th - Edinburgh Capitals (A) - L

Wed 15th - Braehead Clan (H) - L
Sat 18th - Dundee Stars (H) - L

Sat 25th - Coventry Blaze (H) - L
Sun 26th Nottingham Panthers (A) - L

Wed 29th - Braehead Clan (A) - L

February

10 League

5 Home, 5 Away

6 Gardiner Conference, 4 Erhardt Conference 

Sat 1st - Fife Flyers (H) - L
Sun 2nd: Cardiff Devils (A) - L

Wed 5th - Fife Flyers (H) - L
Fri 7th - Belfast Giants (A) - L
Sun 9th - Nottingham Panthers (H) - L

Wed 12th - Braehead Clan (A) - L
Sat 15th - Cardiff Devils (H) - L
Sun 16th - Fife Flyers (A) - L

Wed 19th - Braehead Clan (H) - L
Sun 23rd - Dundee Stars (A) - L

March

6 League

4 Home, 2 Away

3 Gardiner Conference, 3 Erhardt Conference

Sat 1st - Dundee Stars (H) - L
Sat 8th - Sheffield Steelers (H) - L

Wed 12th - Fife Flyers (H) - L
Sat 15th - Dundee Stars (A) - L
Sun 16th - Sheffield Steelers (A) - L

Sun 23th - Sheffield Steelers (H) - L

Stingrays add depth with Chilcott, Blais and Jackson

The Hull Stingrays today added further defensive depth to their roster for the 2013/2014 Elite Ice Hockey League season with the signing of Hull-born defenceman Jamie Chilcott and re-signing of netminders Greg Blais and Liam Jackson.

British prospect Chilcott returns to his hometown five years after last regularly taking to the Hull Arena ice as part of the Kingston Crunch and Kingston Predators at the age of 15.

After recording 40 points at U16 level with the Predators and 16 points at U18 level with the Crunch in 08/09, the 20 year old moved to Canada to spend two years at the Ontario Hockey Academy - a hockey prep school based in Cornwall, Ontario - where he iced alongside fellow Stingray Bobby Chamberlain during his second year.

After two years north of the border, he moved to America in 2011 to join the Space Coast Hurricanes of the Eastern Junior Hockey League - a third tier American junior league - where he spent time with another Hull product and rumoured Elite League bound forward Jack Musil - who has dominated the EJHL in the last two years with 40 goals and 87 points in 53 games. Based in Rockledge, Florida - 60 miles east of Orlando - Chilcott recorded 49 points in 53 games during two years playing at the SpaceCoast Iceplex.

Having honed his skills during four years in North America, Chilcott is highly regarded in British hockey circles and has been called up to the Great Britain junior programme in each of the last four years - joining the U20's as they were relegated from IIHF U20 Division I Group A in Germany in December.
The signing of the 6ft defenceman brings the Stingrays defensive corps to five following off-season additions of Brit Scott Robson, and imports Omar Pacha, Jeff Smith and Martin Ondrej.

Coach Sylvain Cloutier is nearing the completion of his squad with two further import defencemen and it seems likely the Stingrays will be a much stronger proposition defensively next term - as was his aim early in the off-season - with Chilcott and Robson battling it out for a possible regular shift on the Rays third defensive line.

Meanwhile Blais and Jackson return to the Stingrays as second and third choice netminders for a second and third seasons respectively.

Former Telford Tigers netminder Blais, 32, was signed by Cloutier last summer to provide Bowns with support - both on and off-ice - during his first season in the Elite League and to also fill in for the Sheffield born stopper while away on international duty.

Blais largely impressed between the pipes on the two occasions Bowns was called away to Japan and Latvia with the Great Britain senior side. Despite ending the year with just two wins from five starts, the Canadian keeper stood out in those two wins, posting a 46 save winning effort against the Coventry Blaze in his EIHL debut on 10th November at the Hull Arena while turning away 32 of 33 shots in a win over the Dundee Stars on 9th February. He ended his first season in the Elite League with a 90.0sv% and 3.72 goals against average from eight appearances.

Admittedly, British hockey isn't renowned for it's depth between the pipes, however, in Blais the Rays possess the type of solid, experienced backup that few Elite League sides can boast.

Though it's unlikely he will oust Bowns from the starting spot - although that possibility was discussed amongst fans following his standout debut performance in November -  the extra competition will help keep the Stingrays in the best possible position as far as netminding is concerned and will help develop the country's best young keeper in turn.

Elite League sides will again be restricted to 11 imports during the 13/14 season and with the Stingrays set to use all 11 of those spots on outskating players, Blais - as the club's 12th import - will likely see limited action in the early part of the year and whenever the roster is at full-strength.

As with last season though, Blais will be called upon to back up as and when injuries and suspensions to imports occur, and should Bowns suffer an injury or severe loss of form.

When the Rays are healthy and at full strength as far as imports as concerned, 19 year old netminder Liam Jackson will again fill in as back-up during his third season with the club.

Despite being with the club for the last two seasons, the former Bradford Bulldog only made his Stingrays Elite League debut at the tail end of last season, turning away 15 of 17 shots in 20 minutes of action after Bowns was thrown out of the heated 5-0 loss in Dundee on 17th March.