Excel Hull Stingrays 4-2 Newcastle Vipers
Doubles from Jereme Tendler and Matti Uusivirta tonight helped the Excel Hull Stingrays end their three game home winless streak as they gained revenge for defeat in Whitley Bay last Saturday with a 4-2 victory over the Newcastle Vipers.
Injuries to Brits Ryan Lake, Craig Mitchell and Lee Mitchell forced coach Sylvain Cloutier to mix things around, pairing young Brit Ben Lowe primarily with Uusivirta and Konstantin Kalmikov while in form pair Matty Davies and Jason Silverthorn continued together.
Those changes caused the Vipers problems early on with keeper Effinger forced to make a trio of tidy kick saves from Rays forwards, although it was the visitors who had mustered the first chance of the game through Dean Holland.
They would also score the first goal of the game as a poor pass from captain Kurtis Dulle along his offensive blueline during a Vipers powerplay would let the Vipers counter and eventually net through Dale Mahovsky.
The Rays then went down to four defenceman for the remained of the game as Jozef Sladok rightly or wrongly received a five plus game penalty for a check to the head on Nathan Salem. Nevertheless, thanks to yet another sterling effort on the penalty kill, particularly from man of the match Silverthorn, who held off four Vipers to kill a large portion of the penalty, the five minute advantage went unpunished and the period ended with the Vipers leading a largely even first 20 minutes.
Save for a few more goals the second period could not have been much better from a Stingrays point of view. They shot out of the blocks first levelling on the powerplay through Uusivirta, who rifled high past Effinger from the point 51 seconds in, before the Finn grabbed a second on a rebound from a Kalmikov shot to hand the home side a lead they would not relinquish.
Jereme Tendler then one timed home the Stingrays third of the game on the powerplay to end the scoring in a 20 minute period of complete and utter dominance from the home team, who outshot an indisciplined Vipers side an astonishing 22-2.
After being completely outplayed in the second Danny Stewart's side came out in the third looking to prove a point and take both points on offer.
They did the former, refusing to give up on the cause with Patrick Forsbacka scored on the man advantage to reduce the lead to 3-2 as they appeared to turn a corner.
However, indiscipline again returned to the Vipers ranks costing them the chance to capitalise on their improved third period performance as four minor penalties were dished out to them in the final 10 minutes, including four to Forsbacka, who picked up his sixth and eighth of the game, to allow the Rays to re-establish their grip on the game.
Tendler ended the scoring by racking up his second of the game and fourth of the weekend to seal the deal and give Cloutier's side their first win of the season at Hull Arena, ironically in their worst home showing of the year.
A tough matchup against the Belfast Giants in Northern Ireland on Tuesday follows before a home and away double header against the Cardiff Devils next weekend.
Rays rating: 6.5
Stingray goalscorers: Tendler (2), Uusivirta (2)
Newcastle goalscorers: Mahovsky, Forsbacka
SOG: 43-24
PIM: 49-24
FBB Three Stars: 1-Silverthorn (0+0) 2-Uusivirta (2+0) 3-Davies (0+1)
