22nd/23rd Weekend Preview

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Saturday 2nd November: Manchester Phoenix v Excel Hull Stingrays @ Altrincham Ice Dome, F/O 5.30pm

Sunday 23rd November: Nottingham Panthers v Excel Hull Stingrays @ National Ice Centre, F/O 6pm

Form
Stingrays- L L L L L
Manchester- L W L L L
Nottingham- W L W L W

Last 3 Meetings
v Manchester
23/03/08 6-2 W H
06/09/08 3-4 L H
26/10/08 4-6 L A

v Nottingham
07/09/08 2-6 L A
28/09/08 2-2 D H
11/10/08 4-7 L H

Players to watch
Stingrays-Jeff Glowa (22GP 15+10 28PIM)- Scored five of the Stingrays six goals last weekend including a hat trick in Edinburgh and two goals to save a point against Cardiff.
Manchester-David Beauregard (21GP 21+15 14PIM)- After scoring 13 goals in 14 games, Beauregard recorded 7 goals in the Phoenix last 6 games.
Nottingham- David Clarke (15GP 15+7 20PIM) - As one of Britains most lethal finishers Clarke has scored 6 goals in his last 7 games for the Panthers to bring his season figures to 15 goals in 15 games.

Absentees
Stingrays- Troy Neumeier (torn ligaments), Slava Koulikov (broken collarbone)
Manchester- Bruce Mulherin (doubtful)
Nottingham- Marc Levers (doubtful)

Other Stuff
-Manchester Phoenix and British ice hockey legend, Tony Hand, is just 6 points short of his 4000th career point and could reach that total this weekend against either the Stingrays on Saturday or Edinburgh Capitals on Sunday night.
-After just 22 games of the season, the Stingrays all time highest goal and pointscorer, Jeff Glowa is just three goals shy of equalling his record 18 goals during a season in the Elite League. Despite this Glowa still has a way to go to beat his season high in goals which came during the 06/07 EPL season when he scored 40 goals in 45 games for the club.
- Quite the opposite to Glowa, Rays forward Jamie Thompson, who was brought in to replace Rick Kozak (who scored 3 in 5 games for the Stingrays), has gone pointless in 6 games.
-Stingrays defenceman Pavel Gomenyuk will return to action this weekend after sitting out the Rays last four games with a minor upper body injury.

Predictions
Manchester 5-2 Stingrays
Nottingham 6-1 Stingrays