The Nottingham Panthers gained revenge for the Excel Hull Stingrays win in Nottingham three weeks ago with a 5-1 victory in front of one of the biggest attendances of the season and Sky Sports cameras at the Hull Arena.
The opening few minutes were stop start with neither side gaining any real opportunities and with a shorthanded Stingrays inevitably attempting to shut down the Panthers in the same way they had in Newcastle the night before.
That tactic largely worked for the opening one and a half periods, which saw both sides trade goals through Jade Galbraith and the Stingrays Jason Kostadine, before a number of powerplay calls from referee Michael Hicks saw the Panthers capitalise with a goal each from Johan Molin and Dan Tessier.
With the score at 3-1 the Stingrays began to tire and the Panthers took control of the game firing a succession of shots on Curtis Cruickshank. Once again the Stingrays frailties in depth, as a result of injuries, began to show and the Panthers, perhaps harshly, took the game from a close run scoreline to a rout with a goal from Brendan Cook after 38 mintes and Matt Myers late in the third period.
Before the game petered out to a close, with the scoreline at 5-1, the Panthers Danny Meyers and Stingrays ever agitating Jason Kostadine dropped the gloves, with Meyers, on the losing side in the fight, having to make an early visit to the changing room with an injury.
The game closed out in an uneventful fashion however the Stingrays will leave the weekend with the satisfaction that they continued their two-points-a-weekend form.
The Stingrays now face a two week gap before their next league game, against the Cardiff Devils on February 21, before which they play the Manchester Phoenix on Valentine's Day next weekend. The game will be the second round of the British Knockout Cup, which the Stingrays trail 4-0, and to mark Valentine's Day the team will be wearing special jersey's.
Best Moment- Jason Kostadine's fight and win over Danny Meyers, any number of Antti Turunen hits, yet another Antti Turunen off-the-line clearance.
Worst Moment- The first two minutes which were very stop start, the final five minutes which were inevitably both sides playing out the remaining time.
F Block MOM
Stingrays- Antti Turunen (0+0)- Played a very good game in the defensive zone with a couple of nice hits to go with his niggly defensive style. He also enjoyed several good tussles with his Scandinavian opponent Johan Molin in which neither particularly came out on top.
Nottingham- Johan Molin (1+1)- Fast, skillful and linked with playmaker Dan Tessier like Torvill and Dean. Only negative to his game tonight was what looked like an unnecessary and fairly purposeful high stick on Jeff Glowa.
Stingrays verdict: (6/10)- Yet again it was a hard working but tiring performance from an Excel Hull Stingrays side that is still low on numbers. Three powerplay goals from five attempts from the Panthers says that, on the man advantage, the Stingrays couldn't handle Nottingham. Jeff Glowa, Steve Slonina, Troy Neumeier and Antti Turunen put in workman like stints but with just seven forwards the Stingrays ideas and legs looked tired.
Strachan's verdict: "The defeat doesn't dent our confidence at all. We're not going to take any negatives out of it. The guys worked their socks off and battled hard. We didn't lose because we're not a good team, we didn't have enough bodies to get the job done. We used an awful lot of energy to beat Newcastle on Saturday."
"I didn't think a couple of those penalties were penalties in my book. It was 1-1 and we were doing what we had to do to keep it close, but they got two powerplay goals and that made it tough for us."
PIM: 25-9
