Excel Hull Stingrays 6-8 Basingstoke Bison
The Excel Hull Stingrays lost out by two goals in the final challenge cup game of group B against the Basingstoke Bison tonight. Whilst the game was rendered almost completely meaningless by the Stingrays loss to Cardiff on Wednesday night, if the Bison had lost by more than three goals they would have been knocked out and replaced by the Cardiff Devils.
The Stingrays started with back up netminder Andrew Jaszczyk to give starter Curtis Cruickshank much needed rest, whilst they were also without three of their defensive corps in Stuart Kerr, Troy Neumeier and Paul Moran with Slava Koulikov also leaving the game early due to a leg injury.
Four early Bison goals, as well as a solitary Stingrays goal through Jason Kostadine, saw Rick Strachan call a timeout near the beginning of the first period as the Stingrays defence, lacking three players, left rookie Jaszcyzk out to dry. The Stingrays replied to the timeout with two goals from Lee Mitchell and Jeff Glowa at the end of the first before Jason Kostadine scored his second of the game to tie the scores early in the second.
The Bison went on their second scoring spree of the game just six minutes after Kostadine's game tying goal, scoring three in eight minutes to take their lead to 7-4.
The Bison replaced number one netminder Kevin Reiter with Grahame Bird halfway through the third period after a Danny Stewart goal had extended their lead to four goals. The Stingrays responded to the change by firing ten shots on the backup in just nine minutes of play with Konstantin Kalmikov and Matt Reynolds scoring two goals leaving the Stingrays two short of the Bison at the final buzzer.
Despite the defeat, Stingrays coach Rick Strachan took heart from a game, he told the Hull Daily Mail:
"It was like the good old days. We came out a little flat and I called a time-out. We picked it up and got it back to 4-4 before we fell asleep again. It was a nothing game for us, we rested a couple of guys and the intensity was not as high as it was in Basingstoke the night before - but we did it then when it mattered."
Next weekend the Stingrays face playoff rivals the Edinburgh Capitals at Murrayfield in their only game of the weekend. They will be continuing their search for a replacement for Troy Neumeier whilst it will be hoped that Paul Moran, Stuart Kerr and Slava Koulikov will make a full recovery from injury.
SOG- 27-50
PIM- 4-14
