Excel Hull Stingrays 1-6 Edinburgh Capitals
The Excel Hull Stingrays produced one of their poorest performances of the season in front of their home fans on Saturday at the Hull Arena against an Edinburgh Capitals side that the Rays will, come the end of the season, be closely fighting for a playoff spot with and an Edinburgh side that the Stingrays had beaten in both of their encounters this season.
The Stingrays began the game the wrong way if they wished to make it three out of three as the Capitals soon enough stormed into a two goal lead with markers from two Mark's. Mark Garside opened the scoring with a single handed move which saw him ghost through the weakened Stingrays defence and finish top shelf before Mark Hurtubise doubled the lead for the Scottish side, who have recently beaten Newcastle in a home and away double.
With the Stingrays powerplay ineffective and with both, players and fans becoming increasingly agitated by referee Andy Carson, the Stingrays coach Rick Strachan received a game misconduct for an outburst towards Carson. From there on in, with Stingrays assistant coach Slava Koulikov at the helm and minus defencemen Pavel Gomenyuk and Troy Neumeier, the Stingrays leaked goals with a Jeff Glowa goal the only bright spark in a second period that finished 5-1 in favour of the Caps.
The third period was a formality for both sides with Edinburgh adding a goal to the scoreline and the Stingrays continuing their inefficiency going forward, despite out shooting the Capitals 23-4. One of those nights for the Stingrays was completed with a spot of fighting with less than five minutes remaining on the clock, Stuart Kerr and the Capitals Adam Stefishen the willing combatants.
In the end it was the Stingrays inability to both defend and attack (I'm sure your aware of the importance of both of those things in ice hockey) that cost the Stingrays with the powerplay inefficiency(with no conversions from ten powerplays) and little if any defensive coverage for netminder Curtis Cruickshank, who went off late in the third with an apparent injury.
In a four pointer the Capitals took away the points, and in doing so put the Stingrays three points a drift in ninth place, on equal points with Basingstoke in last place with the only positive being that the Rays have three games in hand on both clubs. The Rays take to the ice this Wednesday with a fixture in Coventry, against the Blaze.
Best moment: Jamie Thompson's huge hit on A. Capital. Mark Garside's goal for the Capitals.
Worst moment: Jamie Thompson's huge check from behind which deservedly received 2+10. Edinburgh scoring their fifth and sixth, breaking their record for goals away from home in the Elite League.
F Block Blog MOM- Stingrays- Steve Slonina, Edinburgh- Jeff Hutchins
Stingrays verdict- (2/10)- Although the Rays were without Pavel Gomenyuk, Troy Neumeier and Slava Koulikov, as well as coach Rick Strachan for two periods, after three weeks of solid results, including wins over both Newcastle and Belfast, the quiet home crowd expected two points. Instead they got a terrible showing which, despite out shooting the Capitals 48-31, did little to encourage the fans that their recent form was little more than luck. The Stingrays powerplay was woeful, defensively they were poor and offensively, despite the 43 shots, they weren't much better.
Strachans verdict:"We were already a couple of guys short and we didn't help ourselves by making stupid decisions which saw us 3-0 down. We got back in the game, gained some momentum and were all over them. But instead of going in at the end of the second period maybe 3-2 behind, we made some more stupid mistakes and it's 5-1 and game over. It was one of those nights."
