The Excel Hull Stingrays ended a seven year wait for a win in Sheffield over the Steelers with a landmark 5-2 win over the South Yorkshire side on Sunday night, in doing so Sylvain Cloutier's side claimed just its second four point weekend of the season.
The game began in all too familiar fashion for the Stingrays with the Kevin Bolibruck squeezing one through Martins Raitums on the powerplay to give the Steelers a lead after less than two minutes.
Despite Adam Knight levelling on the Stingrays own powerplay just over 60 seconds later, after Steelers backup Dan Green had dropped a rebound at the tough Canadians feet, the Steelers immediately pushed forward again.
On the ensuing pressure home debutant Jonathan Zion then scored his second goal and fourth point in two games to give the Steelers the lead once more with a two-on-one handing the rangy defenceman a chance he could not miss.
The first period went much as previous fixtures between the two sides had gone, with the Steelers retaining much of the possession, picking and choosing their opportunities to rush at the Stingrays defence.
Luckily for the Stingrays, after a period that could be described as lacklustre, the deficit was just one goal, thanks, in part, to some sloppy passing from the Steelers and some sterling work by Raitums.
As has happened on a number of occasions so far this season, the Stingrays came out of the second intermission as a different side following words from coach Cloutier, and, for once, did not look back.
In the 27th minute Green once again split a juicy rebound, this time from a George Halkidis shot, and Curtis Huppe was on hand to level the scores with his 14th of the season as the momentum began to swing in the Stingrays favour.
The third saw the Stingrays really turn the screw as two quick 47th minute goals put paid to the Steelers efforts to claim both points from the visitors.
Jason Silverthorn scored the Rays third of the night from a three-on-two which saw Konstantin Kalmikov unload one of his rocket shots on Green. Brit Green was clearly having trouble controlling his rebounds and he could only direct the rebound towards the incoming Silverthorn, who jubilantly hit the twine to give the Rays the lead for the first time in the game.
49 seconds later and Craig Mitchell fired home a slapshot from the point after receiving a pass straight from the face-off win of Lee Esders to give the Rays an unheard of two-goal lead at the Sheffield Arena.
Sylvain Cloutier's side were now beginning to dominate the game and chances continued to come until two minutes remaining when the expected final push from the Steelers began.
Raitums had to make a number of impressive quick stops to deny the Steelers a chance of getting back into the game late on but Cloutier netted the empty net goal from his own blueline with less than 40 seconds remaining to send the sizable Stingrays following into a frenzy and to claim ice hockey in Hull's first ever win at the Sheffield Arena.
Next weekend, Cloutier's side face an out-of-form Cardiff Devils side at the Hull Arena before heading to league leaders Coventry as they look to close the six point gap between them and the Steelers and build on what could turn out to be a historic past weekend.
Stingrays Stats
Goalscorers: Knight, Huppe, Silverthorn, C.Mitchell, Cloutier
Raitums: 30 shots, 2 goals against
SOG: 28-30
PIM: 12-14
Good
Jeff Glowa's determined shift during crucial penalty kill in the third, summed up Glowa's commitment to the team. Martins Raitums providing some very very solid play, easily tidying up any rebounds he gave up. A brilliant team performance, hard work and not giving up on anything. The three goal, third period, blowing away any chance of the Steelers once again picking up a win in this fixture.
Bad
Not much, perhaps only the first period performance in which it felt as though it would be another one of those nights in Sheffield, with the Steelers taking much of the control.
F Block Blog MOM
Stingrays: Craig Mitchell (1+0)Often players are handed the official man of the match award simply because they scored a goal, sometimes even their first goal for their team (as in this case), but, oddly enough, Mitchell primarily stood out for his defensive play, and despite scoring his first for the Stingrays and despite his brother Lee claiming the Steelers official MOM award, he was the standout figure from FBB's point of view. Calm, assured on the puck and physically not afraid to get involved, Mitchell bagged a long overdue first of the season and put in his best performance of the year.
Sheffield: Jonathan Zion (1+1) It's easy to see why the Steelers picked this guy up in place of the injured Rod Sarich. Offensively determined to power forward, a great shot, good eye for a pass and was deservedly awarded for his home debut efforts with a goal and an assist to go with the goal and assist he added in the loss to Nottingham the previous night. His defensive efforts may be questioned as time goes by but there are no doubts about his pointscoring abilities.
Stingrays Verdict: 9/10
But only because it's probably not fair on future performances to give a 10 out of 10. Fans, long serving players and, particularly, the owners and management of the club had been waiting a long, long time for a victory in Sheffield and how sweet it was.
Performance wise it did not pick up until the second period, but when it did pick up it was clear the Rays had it in them to actually win a game in Sheffield.
Ok, the Steelers may be a shadow of their former selves (some may even say a club in crisis) but they managed to retain a large majority of the players that claimed them the double last season and they still boast, as reported today in the Sheffield Star, a wage bill a lot larger than the Stingrays.
Without wanting to jinx him, Marty Raitums, after just one training session with the team, already looks like a brilliant signing by Sylvain Cloutier, and in front of him the defence, while still a little hesitant, look a lot more confident with the stock of Stephen Burns and Craig Mitchell rising quickly in the last month.
Up front and more goals from the likes of Curtis Huppe, Jason Silverthorn and Sylvain Cloutier will do the teams chance no harm, with the goalscoring form of Huppe particularly encouraging.
This game just turned into a hardworking team performance, one reminiscent of how Cloutier played and plays the game and it was clear how much this victory meant to him at the final buzzer.
It may have been just another victory, and, that, one against the seventh placed team in the league, but the monkey is now well and truly off the Stingrays backs. The confidence gained from both a four point weekend and reducing the gap between them and the Steelers to six points could, potentially, be great. The key is now continuing that momentum through to next weekend and the rest of the season, with Raitums in net, that may be possible.
Cloutier's Comments
"Marty's come in and done a great job for us. You couldn't ask any more from him this weekend. He just clams things down, and no-one's running around and squeezing their sticks."
"I'm proud of all 20 guys in the dressing room – it's a team game. We've been playing some good hockey for the last month to six weeks, but we just haven't been getting the results. They've all worked extremely hard and it's four big points for our club this weekend and the confidence is back.""But it's back to work tomorrow to get ready for next weekend."
