Excel Hull Stingrays 1-7 Cardiff Devils
The Excel Hull Stingrays produced a horrifying performance at the Hull Arena tonight as they went down by seven goals to one to a Jay Latulippe and Ben Davies inspired Cardiff Devils.
The Devils came out of the blocks quickly and did not allow the refreshed and full strength Stingrays the chance to settle, especially given that the Devils were starting with British netminder Joseph Myers, who was in to replace concussed Peter Aubry. Jay Latulippe's first goal in the first period came from a big mistake from Stingrays netminder Curtis Cruickshank after just over 30 seconds gone and the Devils never looked back, nor did the Stingrays look forward, from that moment on.
A first period hat trick from Laulippe and another goal from leading scorer Mike Prpich all but sealed the tie for the Devils. A late slapshot from Pavel Gomenyuk allowed Konstantin Kalmikov to push home the rebound giving the Stingrays, and 800 odd fans, a false sense of hope for the next two periods.
That hope was extinguished five minutes into the second period by a Ben Davies goal, the second of his career. The Devils continued to restrict the Stingrays in their zone but scored further goals from Phil Hill and a second of the game for Davies.
In the midst of the second period a trademark Jamie Thompson hit left the Devils Jason Stone down injured for several minutes. Hill eventually returned to his feet but did not ice again, whilst Thompson would later be faced with 6'7 Brad Voth and 6'5 Doug MacIver as retribution.
The final period, attacks on Thompson from the aforementioned aside, was exhibition stuff with Cardiff in exhibition mode, most notably a Brad Voth move which wouldn't have looked out of place in the recent All Star game, whilst the Stingrays continued to go through the motions. Stingrays backup Andrew Jazscyzk came in to replace Cruickshank and stopped all 12 shots on goal as the game thankfully petered out to a close.
Luckily for the Stingrays, the gap between the them and the Edinburgh Capitals remains one point after the Scottish side lost 6-3 at home to the Coventry Blaze. The Stingrays now move on to face league leaders the Sheffield Steelers in South Yorkshire in a test of what they are really made of following this embarrassing defeat.
Best Moment: Lee Esders showing at least some passion in a passionless performance and receiving a two minute cool down for his efforts, Jamie Thompson's perfectly legal check on Jason Stone (although the outcome was anything but the best moment).
Worst Moment: Curtis Cruickshank's howler within the first 30 seconds set the team up for one of its worst performances in five years, perhaps if he had made a fairly routine save from that first shot the Stingrays would have had a chance.
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Stingrays- Andrew Jazscyzk (12 shots, 0 GA)- Although the game was gone by the time he appeared at the beginning of the third, Cardiff did fire 12 shots on the Stingrays net and he dealt with them all more than adequately.
Cardiff- Ben Davies (2+0)- One for the future, Davies bagged his second and third career goals against the Stingrays and did not look out of place throughout the whole game, even showing coolness when met with a thoroughly annoyed Lee Esders. In fact he deserved, and one slip aside, could have scored his first career hat trick.
Stingrays verdict (1/10): It was that bad! Clueless, gutless, effortless are just a few of the terms which just about do this performance justice. There were no good performances, even Steve Slonina, who has generally been the Stingrays most consistent player this season, made mistakes. Kalmikov's skill again shone through but with no one with him it was ultimately a wasted effort. The defence was often further forward than the forwards, the forwards couldn't carry the puck forward for more than 2 meters without losing it and although Cruickshank had no chance with most of the goals, he was far from confident in the Rays net, case in point the crucial first goal. Backup netminder Jazscyzk did a good job shutting out the Devils in the third, although the game was well gone by then and Lee Esders showed effort and passion that the rest of the team showed none of, even if he too made mistakes. Expect a double digit loss in Sheffield if they play half as bad as last night.
Strachan's verdict: "The goalie didn't stop the puck, our forwards didn't score and didn't check and our defence, who knows what our defence was doing? I don't think we won any 50:50 pucks, in fact we didn't do one thing right. That was the worst game we have played in three months. That's all I want to say."
SOG: 32-42
PIM: 10-55
Playoff Race:
8th- Edinburgh GP44, W 12, OTL6, L26, GF134, GA211, GDIFF -77, PTS 30
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9th- Stingrays GP44, W 12, OTL5, L27, GF113, GA194, GDIFF -81, PTS 29
