Excel Hull Stingrays 3-2 Belfast Giants
Martins Raitums, Sylvain Cloutier and the Excel Hull Stingrays latest signing, produced a man of the match performance between the Rays pipes to record a 3-2 victory over the high flying Belfast Giants in his debut in the UK.
The debutant turned away 39 of the 42 shots fired at him by the third placed Giants and was handed the man of the match award as the Rays gained their first win in four games.
Konstantin Kalmikov opened scoring for the home side with his 23rd goal of the season after 11 minutes before Colin Shields leveled the scores 13 minutes later during the second period.
Goals from Jeff Glowa, shorthanded, and Pavel Gomenyuk, then gave the Stingrays firm control of the game with a 3-1 lead.
Belfast would then hit back through Pierre-Luc Faubert but, despite pulling Stephen Murphy in favour of the extra out skater, the Northern Irish side could not crucially level the scores once again.
Cloutier's side can narrow the gap between them and the seventh placed Sheffield Steelers to seven points with victory over the South Yorkshire side tonight, however, that will be no mean feat in a fixture that the Stingrays have not won in their seven year history.
SOG: 39-26
PIM: 6-16
