Excel Hull Stingrays 2-4 Nottingham Panthers
David Clarke netted twice as the Nottingham Panthers beat an understrength Excel Hull Stingrays side in Challenge Cup Group B by four goals to two at the Hull Arena.
The Stingrays, already missing Ryan Jorde, Lee Mitchell, Adam Knight and Curtis Huppe, were also without evergreen forward Jeff Glowa, but it was them that took a surprise lead on 16 minutes with the goal stream of Konstantin Kalmikov showing no signs of letting up as the Ukrainian notched his seventh in eight games.
With just six imports however, it was always going to be a battle for the Stingrays and a second period powerplay double from GB international Clarke gave the league leading Panthers a winning foundation going into the final period.
Sylvain Cloutier finally netted for the first time in his Stingrays career to bring the lead back down to one halfway through the third, but further goals from the Panthers Kevin Bergin and an empty netter from Sean McAslan condemned the Rays to their third defeat in three in the Challenge Cup games, all but ending their cup campaign, and sixth in all competitions.
Although they only fired 15 shots on Kevin St-Pierre and saw their losing streak extended to six, the Stingrays can take heart from this defeat, especially since the Panthers only won the tie with eight minutes to go with four more imports.
Further encouragement can be taken from the strong performance of Tommy Sandahl in net, who tonight turned away 47 shots and continues to be a real bright spark so far this season, whilst Adam Knight and Curtis Huppe will now return from five game suspensions for next weekend's league game at home to Edinburgh.
PIM: 18-18
SOG: 48-31
