Excel Hull Stingrays 7-9 Coventry Blaze
The Excel Hull Stingrays scored seven goals against reigning Elite League Champions, the Coventry Blaze, but still managed to turn out on the losing side in a 9-7 loss at the Hull Arena.
Without defencemen Stuart Kerr, Troy Neumeier, Richie Thornton and forward Slava Koulikov the Stingrays took the lead through Jeff Glowa's 19th of the season, a career best in the Elite League, before Coventry quickly struck back just over a minute later through Adam Calder. Glowa scored a rare Stingrays shorthanded goal on 15 minutes before Coventry once again equalised before Adam Calder and the Stingrays Lee Mitchell dropped the gloves following a elbow from Calder during the following faceoff. The Blaze went on to take the lead for the first time through Sylvain Deschatelets, who would go on to record five Coventry goals.
After facing 19 shots in the first period Stingrays netminder Curtis Cruickshank, still suffering from a concussion suffered in Thursdays loss in Belfast, was replaced by 19 year old backup netminder Andrew Jazsczyk, who went on to face 30 shots.
Jazsczyk immediately faced a baptism of fire as the Blaze extended their lead to 6-2 with some slack defence allowing Deschatelets to score his second and third before Dan Carlson scored Coventry's sixth. With the game apparently slipping away from the Stingrays goals from Pavel Gomenyuk and Matt Reynolds seemed to have slow the tide, only for that man Deschatelets score his fourth and fifth of the game to all but end the game as a contest.
That was until the goal of the game from Lee Esders and a Konstantin Kalmikov marker gave the Stingrays hope of a surprise victory. Indeed, straight from the faceoff of scoring his third of the season, Lee Esders headed straight back towards Blaze netminder JF Perras and hit the pipework. The Stingrays pressure continued for the remainder of the game before a smart finish from Blaze defenceman Corey LeClair extended the Blaze lead to three goals once again. Jamie Thompson finally ended the goalscoring marathon with a backhanded effort which set a Stingrays record for highest number of goals scored in a loss at seven and sent fans home happy despite the loss.
Best Moment- Jamie Thompson scoring his sixth of the season to confirm that the Stingrays had indeed just scored seven against a full strength Coventry Blaze with a backup and just two/three regular defencemen. Andrew Jaszcyzk's third period save to deny Deschatelets and to set the foundations for a confident third period performance.
Worst Moment- Three goals in four shots for Coventry at the beggining of the second period
F Block MOM- Stingrays- Steve Slonina (0+2), Coventry- Sylvain Deschatelets (5+0)
Stingrays verdict- (7/10)- With just two regular defencemen and a backup netminder the Stingrays somehow managed to score seven goals, a season high, and put in one of the better offensive displays against the Elite Leagues second best defence. On the flip side with a backup netminder in goal they gave the Blaze far too much respect at the back and allowed a fair number of backdoor tap ins. That said it was a good performance from near enough the whole squad and certainly one of the most entertaining games the fans will see all season. Slonina once again stood out on defence, Kalmikov's skill shone through as did Lee Esders and Jeff Glowa's pure determination.
Strachan's verdict: "I am sure the fans enjoyed the game but it was a coach’s nightmare. It was like old fashioned hockey in this country. I can’t criticise the guys. Offensively we were great but when you have only two defenceman and a back-up goalie, it is always going to be difficult"
