Excel Hull Stingrays 1-1 Nottingham Panthers
The Excel Hull Stingrays unbelievably inconsistent season continued tonight as they bounced back from an embarrassing 12-0 defeat to Cardiff in the league on Friday night by holding the Nottingham Panthers to a 1-1 draw in the Challenge Cup.
After two scoreless periods in which they out shot the league title contenders by 24-16 the Rays opened the scoring in the third period as an out of form Konstantin Kalmikov netted a powerplay goal to take the lead after 41 minutes, on a goal Christian Boucher assisted for his point of the year.
Sylvain Cloutier's side attempted to cling on to an unlikely 1-0 win in a Challenge Cup they are already knocked out of but Nottingham forward Rob Bellamy bagged the game tying goal eight minutes later.
The tie represents the third game in three in which the Stingrays have claimed a point from one of the league's top sides following a regulation win over Coventry and overtime win against Belfast. Unfortunately that hard work has all too often been undone by crippling defeats.
In the long run the addition of defenceman Drew Bannister, who made his home debut tonight, should help shore up a leaky defence and improve an inconsistent record but few would be surprised if changes were made by Cloutier.
Regardless of how well the Panthers played, the tie is another encouraging result for the Stingrays and should they eventually get their consistency issues fixed, a playoff spot would appear to be a certainty.
