The Excel Hull Stingrays produced a late late show to steal two points from the Cardiff Devils in South Wales, with Ukrainian defenceman Pavel Gomenyuk coming away with all plaudits after two goals in the last five minutes.
In a similar fashion to the previous encounter with the Devils in Cardiff Bay, which ended 1-0 to the Devils, it was clear that a goal either way could be crucial.
The Devils made early inroads into the Stingrays defence before that pressure paid off with a Wes Jarvis goal after just five minutes. The Devils continued to press but failed to find a way past the combination of an inform Curtis Cruickshank and framework of the goal, which denied the Devils on a couple of occasions, most notably from home debutant and former NHLer Matt Elich.
In the end though it was the Devils who were made to pay for their inability to convert at the crucial times as Gomenyuk struck, unassisted, after 55 minutes. At this point it looked almost certain that both sides would accept a point after a blunt offensive performance and would head into overtime to settle the game
Unfortunatly for the Devils, Gomenyuk popped up again with just thirty seconds left in the game
to capitalise on a Jay Latulippe slashing call to seal the Stingrays fifth win in the so called 'Blue Tent'.
The win was made all the more important as the Edinburgh Capitals, who before tonight sat on an equal 25 points with the Stingrays with just one game in hand, also scored a goal in the last 30 seconds of their match against the Basingstoke Bison, to snatch themselves maximum points.
The gap between bottom side Basingstoke and the Stingrays is now an unprecedented eight points whilst they and the Capitals are now nine points adrift of the Newcastle Vipers in seventh place.
Next weekend the Stingrays face the Newcastle Vipers for the fourth time in a month at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle before returning home to play the Nottingham Panthers, meanwhile the Capitals face the Panthers in Nottingham on Saturday in what promises to be a tense run in to the playoffs.
Strachan said: "We knew it was going to be a low-scoring game and we had to play a tight defensive game. All the guys played great."
"We got a little lucky to tie the game but we are in a situation where we are battling for points every weekend with a depleted squad. We only have seven forwards and teams shouldn’t win many games with that number. But these guys just don’t give up."
SOG: 25-17PIM: 10-6
