A fine individual display from British forward Matty Davies was not enough to spur the Excel Hull Stingrays to their first victory in seven games, as they went down by seven goals to five at home to the Cardiff Devils on Halloween.
Highlights:
Stingrays Stats
Stats: Davies 2+1, Huppe, Glowa Halkidis 1+0, Cloutier, Kalmikov, Sanford 0+1.
Sandahl: 32 shots, 7 goals
Jazscyzk: 7 shots, 0 goals
SOG: 32-40
PIM: 8-10
Good
Matty Davies fine performance, George Halkidis looking like the kind of solid, commanding defenceman required, five goals scored by the Rays, a good effort given the number of injuries to the side.
Bad
One or two players looking like they could be easily replaced, failing to get the win over an inexperienced backup netminder, Sandahl allowing seven goals.
F Block Blog MOM
Stingrays: Matty Davies (2+1) The young Brit has come so far in such a little amount of time so far this season. After spending much of his time on the bench in early season, he pounced on his chance with two assists against Coventry when given a regular shift by Sylvain Cloutier. He continued in that vein of form and may have forced Cloutier's hand with regards to the under performing Slava Koulikov, who was promptly released two weeks ago. This performance will further solidify his place in the team and more performances like it will see the rest of the British game take note. Two lovely top shelf finishes, a very tasty setup pass and a brilliantly commanding performance for someone so young, even if it may have been a 'meaningless' tie, Davies shone.
Cardiff: Matt Miller (3+0) The Canadian, signed pre-season from the CHL after a stint in Basingstoke, has been the surprise package for the Devils so far this season, notching a team leading 13 goals, good for second in the league, and a joint team leading 25 points. Three accomplished finishes for Miller handed the Devils what, in the end, was an easy victory, preventing the Rays from ending their win drought.
Stingrays Verdict: 5/10
A few of the Stingrays ranks should probably be quite worried, this was a distinctly average performance all around, Matty Davies aside. After churning out daily press releases saying 60 minutes is required from one-and-all, few have delivered on that requirement.
Sylvain Cloutier, Craig Mitchell and Jeff Glowa are three players that give 100% week-in-week-out, Konstantin Kalmikov and Matty Davies showed they have the ability to give the team the spark needed, while George Halkidis has the desire to succeed and looks a good acquisition. Although not exclusively, many of those not named are big worries.
Unpleasantries aside, the Rays managed to put in an entertaining performance, albeit against a backup netminder in a 'meaningless' game with a shortened roster. It is not a huge surprise that when you have four first team players out, you struggle, but they will soon be back to full strength and then all eyes will be on Hull to pull up some trees.
In this game they looked really quite threatening during just two periods of play, the opening ten and around the final ten minutes, that isn't good enough, injuries or not. Now it is down to the bread and butter, the Elite League, where the team really really need a run of results.
Cloutier's Comments
"I am disappointed. We need a win and when you score five goals it should be enough to win any game. But I am pleased for Matty. He's playing well at the moment and he is taking his chance."
