Excel Hull Stingrays 3 - 4 Belfast Giants
The Excel Hull Stingrays tonight went down by four goals to three to Elite Ice Hockey League leaders the Belfast Giants despite having lead 3-1 after 24 minutes thanks to three powerplay goals.
The special teams, and particularly the man advantage, has perhaps been the brightest spot for the Stingrays during their opening seven league games this term and the first 24 minutes would go a long way to proving that.
The tone for a penalty strewn first period was set just six seconds in, Stingrays Derek Campbell and Belfast enforcer Adam Keefe dropping the gloves from opening face-off in a fairly uneventful fight which the league leaders man may have edged.
What followed that opening tussle was a seemingly unstoppable procession to the penalty box as referee Andy Carson dished out an incredible 35 minutes to Belfast and 17 to the Stingrays in the opening 20 minutes - 14 of those going to the Giants Ryan Crane.
Given their clinical ability on the powerplay so far this season, this favoured the home side as they raced into a deserved two-goal lead after 16 minutes.
For once the Stingrays were afforded the opportunity of a good start in the frantic opening minutes, Jason Silverthorn rifling one past an unsighted Stephen Murphy in the Belfast net after 2.45 - on a goal that gave Tristan Harper his first point in a Stingrays jersey.
Campbell then added to his earlier fight with a deserved first goal for the Stingrays - tipping in a unconvincing blueline shot from Dmitri Rodin to double the lead.
With the intermission of an entertaining period closing in the home team leaked a crucial goal to the Giants, Martin Ondrej losing the puck in his own end before Brock McBride ghosted into as the extra man to halve the lead with less than 20 seconds left on the clock.
Save for the late goal, the Stingrays continued the second as they had ended the first, though former Steeler and new Belfast signing Robert Dowd missed what appeared to be an open goal sitter three minutes in.
Silverthorn then added his second of the night and fifth of the season on the Stingrays third powerplay goal of the evening, again firing past Murphy to restore the two goal lead having been set up by a move from Frantisek Bakrlik which saw two Giants nearly collide mid-ice.
Though it is fair to say their ability on the powerplay had, at this stage, somewhat helped them into a two-goal lead at, the Stingrays had been more than competing with the reigning playoff champions.
That was until the 25th minute, immediately following what would be their last goal, when the Giants turned up the pressure and forced the Stingrays into their own end, sustaining that pressure continuously for the first time in the game.
It is no coincidence that the Giants first real period of superiority came at a time when they were finally, for the first time in the game, at full strength.
Following Ondrej's earlier mistake for Belfast's opener, it was two further defensive mistakes combined with the Giants unrelenting offence that forced the visitors back into the game as the Rays continually struggled to clear their lines.
First McBride added his eighth of the season and second of the game, profiting from captain Joshua Mizerek losing the puck in the corner. Then, both Dominic Osman and Dan Scott failed to fire the puck out of the defensive end, allowing Beniot Doucet to level the game for the Northern Irish side - much to the dismay of Osman, who proceeded to smash his stick on the bar of Christian Boucher's net, frustrated at letting the game slip from the Rays grasp.
Having weathered the majority of a whirlwind Belfast storm, the Stingrays may have perhaps been thankful to have been heading into the final stanza level and not behind. If the first period belonged to the home side thanks to the man advantage, the second saw Belfast's superiority five-on-five come to the fore.
The deciding point in the final stanza, and indeed the game, came nearly ten minutes into the third. Stingrays agitator Campbell compounded an eventful night and a generally good all-around performance with a moment of madness.
The 31 year old reacted badly to a big hip-check from Daryll Lloyd in the corner, hitting his stick against the plexi and firing verbals the way of referee Carson for his lack of call - to which Carson dished out a 10 minute penalty for abuse of official - before being handed a five plus match penalty for excessive roughness after frustratedly throwing a number of gloved punches at Lloyd.
That foolish penalty gave the Giants a five minute powerplay which they would capitalise upon for the first time in the game, netting what would turn out to be the game winning goal through defenceman Jeff Mason on a rebound four minutes into the advantage, after the Rays had impressively and easily killed 80% of the powerplay.
From this point on the Giants shut up shop and with less than six minutes remaining the home team found it tough to break down Doug Christiansen's side - unsurprisingly five-on-five - as the away side claimed a hard fought win for the second time in two weeks at Hull Arena.
Sylvain Cloutier's side may have yet again failed to finish off a top four side - as they did last week against Nottingham - and admittedly struggled against the Giants in that even strength period in the second, however, the positives more than outweigh those few negatives.
The Stingrays are continually referred to by people outside the club as a hard working team and eventually this hard work will surely pay off for the club after a tough early season schedule.
Naturally, there are areas of their game that can - and probably will - be improved. Defensively, three of four Belfast goals came from defensive turnovers in their own end. Offensively, the much mooted lack of depth is a problem, with most of the offensive reliance on Silverthorn, Rodin and Jereme Tendler, though this certainly shouldn't be a terminal problem, at least at this stage.
It is indeed, far too easy to focus on the negatives, particularly against a team like Belfast that boasts so much firepower and should be there or there abouts when the season comes to a close.
On the other side of things, tonight's improvements alongside last week's performance prove it is not impossible for the club to compete with the top teams, and also show Cloutier and team are getting to a level of performance they will be happy with, even if wins are not forthcoming.
While team work ethic, Silverthorn, Rodin, Tendler and netminder Boucher - who continues to defy early season critics - are amongst the other numerous positives, it has to be said the all around performance has improved three fold in the week since a demoralising 6-0 loss in Sheffield.
The Stingrays meet just their second none top five side of the season tomorrow night as they travel to Dundee to take on the Stars - who have lost all five of their opening league games, two in overtime.
The Excel Hull Stingrays tonight went down by four goals to three to Elite Ice Hockey League leaders the Belfast Giants despite having lead 3-1 after 24 minutes thanks to three powerplay goals.
The special teams, and particularly the man advantage, has perhaps been the brightest spot for the Stingrays during their opening seven league games this term and the first 24 minutes would go a long way to proving that.
The tone for a penalty strewn first period was set just six seconds in, Stingrays Derek Campbell and Belfast enforcer Adam Keefe dropping the gloves from opening face-off in a fairly uneventful fight which the league leaders man may have edged.
What followed that opening tussle was a seemingly unstoppable procession to the penalty box as referee Andy Carson dished out an incredible 35 minutes to Belfast and 17 to the Stingrays in the opening 20 minutes - 14 of those going to the Giants Ryan Crane.
Given their clinical ability on the powerplay so far this season, this favoured the home side as they raced into a deserved two-goal lead after 16 minutes.
For once the Stingrays were afforded the opportunity of a good start in the frantic opening minutes, Jason Silverthorn rifling one past an unsighted Stephen Murphy in the Belfast net after 2.45 - on a goal that gave Tristan Harper his first point in a Stingrays jersey.
Campbell then added to his earlier fight with a deserved first goal for the Stingrays - tipping in a unconvincing blueline shot from Dmitri Rodin to double the lead.
With the intermission of an entertaining period closing in the home team leaked a crucial goal to the Giants, Martin Ondrej losing the puck in his own end before Brock McBride ghosted into as the extra man to halve the lead with less than 20 seconds left on the clock.
Save for the late goal, the Stingrays continued the second as they had ended the first, though former Steeler and new Belfast signing Robert Dowd missed what appeared to be an open goal sitter three minutes in.
Silverthorn then added his second of the night and fifth of the season on the Stingrays third powerplay goal of the evening, again firing past Murphy to restore the two goal lead having been set up by a move from Frantisek Bakrlik which saw two Giants nearly collide mid-ice.
Though it is fair to say their ability on the powerplay had, at this stage, somewhat helped them into a two-goal lead at, the Stingrays had been more than competing with the reigning playoff champions.
That was until the 25th minute, immediately following what would be their last goal, when the Giants turned up the pressure and forced the Stingrays into their own end, sustaining that pressure continuously for the first time in the game.
It is no coincidence that the Giants first real period of superiority came at a time when they were finally, for the first time in the game, at full strength.
Following Ondrej's earlier mistake for Belfast's opener, it was two further defensive mistakes combined with the Giants unrelenting offence that forced the visitors back into the game as the Rays continually struggled to clear their lines.
First McBride added his eighth of the season and second of the game, profiting from captain Joshua Mizerek losing the puck in the corner. Then, both Dominic Osman and Dan Scott failed to fire the puck out of the defensive end, allowing Beniot Doucet to level the game for the Northern Irish side - much to the dismay of Osman, who proceeded to smash his stick on the bar of Christian Boucher's net, frustrated at letting the game slip from the Rays grasp.
Having weathered the majority of a whirlwind Belfast storm, the Stingrays may have perhaps been thankful to have been heading into the final stanza level and not behind. If the first period belonged to the home side thanks to the man advantage, the second saw Belfast's superiority five-on-five come to the fore.
The deciding point in the final stanza, and indeed the game, came nearly ten minutes into the third. Stingrays agitator Campbell compounded an eventful night and a generally good all-around performance with a moment of madness.
The 31 year old reacted badly to a big hip-check from Daryll Lloyd in the corner, hitting his stick against the plexi and firing verbals the way of referee Carson for his lack of call - to which Carson dished out a 10 minute penalty for abuse of official - before being handed a five plus match penalty for excessive roughness after frustratedly throwing a number of gloved punches at Lloyd.
That foolish penalty gave the Giants a five minute powerplay which they would capitalise upon for the first time in the game, netting what would turn out to be the game winning goal through defenceman Jeff Mason on a rebound four minutes into the advantage, after the Rays had impressively and easily killed 80% of the powerplay.
From this point on the Giants shut up shop and with less than six minutes remaining the home team found it tough to break down Doug Christiansen's side - unsurprisingly five-on-five - as the away side claimed a hard fought win for the second time in two weeks at Hull Arena.
Sylvain Cloutier's side may have yet again failed to finish off a top four side - as they did last week against Nottingham - and admittedly struggled against the Giants in that even strength period in the second, however, the positives more than outweigh those few negatives.
The Stingrays are continually referred to by people outside the club as a hard working team and eventually this hard work will surely pay off for the club after a tough early season schedule.
Naturally, there are areas of their game that can - and probably will - be improved. Defensively, three of four Belfast goals came from defensive turnovers in their own end. Offensively, the much mooted lack of depth is a problem, with most of the offensive reliance on Silverthorn, Rodin and Jereme Tendler, though this certainly shouldn't be a terminal problem, at least at this stage.
It is indeed, far too easy to focus on the negatives, particularly against a team like Belfast that boasts so much firepower and should be there or there abouts when the season comes to a close.
On the other side of things, tonight's improvements alongside last week's performance prove it is not impossible for the club to compete with the top teams, and also show Cloutier and team are getting to a level of performance they will be happy with, even if wins are not forthcoming.
While team work ethic, Silverthorn, Rodin, Tendler and netminder Boucher - who continues to defy early season critics - are amongst the other numerous positives, it has to be said the all around performance has improved three fold in the week since a demoralising 6-0 loss in Sheffield.
The Stingrays meet just their second none top five side of the season tomorrow night as they travel to Dundee to take on the Stars - who have lost all five of their opening league games, two in overtime.
Rays Rating
7
FBB Three Stars
1 - Jason Silverthorn (2+1)
2 - Christian Boucher (33 saves)
3 - Dmitir Rodin (0+3)
