The Excel Hull Stingrays tonight put ten past a thoroughly depleted Edinburgh Capitals side that lost 18-1 in Sheffield last night, with the Scottish side eventually losing out by eight goals.
The Caps entered the game with Martin Cingel, Nick Fanto and Jeff Hutchins as their lone imports and with young Scot Craig Holland between the pipes, while the Stingrays were once again without Lee Mitchell (knee) and Matty Davies, who is rumoured to have walked out on the team after being demoted to the third line in Wednesday nights shootout win over Dundee.
As expected, given their stronger roster on paper, the Stingrays got off to be better start pressurising Edinburgh for large portions of the first period, as they would continue to do right throughout the game.
The pressure on rookie keeper Holland eventually told as Man of the Match Lee Esders, who last year bagged 18 points in 56 games but to this point had just two points in 33 games this season, gratefully netted a one timer at 5.43 on a feed from Slovak Jozef Sladok, who put in another encouraging performance in the forward role.
The Stingrays doubled their lead through Jason Silverthorn's 100th Elite League goal less than two minutes later as the Canadian jinked with the puck behind the net before wrapping around to slot home having picked up Konstantin Kalmikov's wide drive.
Sladok then claimed his second point of the night, rounding off the first period scoring with a wrist shot past an unsighted Holland as the Stingrays put the result almost certainly beyond doubt.
The Caps, whose young Brits and trio of imports worked hard all night long, grabbed an early second period goal through Jeff Hutchins as they had done 24 hours earlier in Sheffield, the EIHL veteran finishing after a nice centred pass from impressive import rookie Fanto.
Two speculative shots from the blueline four minutes apart from Craig Mitchell and Drew Bannister then gave the Rays a three and then four goal lead at 5-1 thanks to their first and second goals of the year respectively, ending the few Caps hopes for a result.
A Matti Uusivirta tripping penalty then sparked a trio of goals. First, Konstantin Kalmikov burst through the middle shorthanded for Jason Silverthorn to bundle the puck home and then Jereme Tendler gave the Rays a 7-1 lead with his seventh shorty of the year and 29th overall 18 seconds later.
The Caps Jordan Steel then completed a busy two minutes, wonderfully dekeing a Stingrays defenceman prior to firing in off the crossbar past Christian Boucher.
That would be the Caps final goal of the night however, as Matti Uusivirta netted the goal he had been visibly searching for all night with a scrappy poke home.
With the result not in question both sides changed starting netminder heading into the final stanza as Boucher made way for backup Andrew Jaszczyk and former Sheffield Steelers number two Brandon Stone replaced Holland in the Caps net.
Jaszczyk would stand tall and stop all that was thrown at him in the final period, while Stones would perform well allowing two goals on 12 shots as the Stingrays completed their rout.
The first of those two goals would come from the stick of Esders, who netted his second of the night on a pass from Ryan Lake after being left all alone right in front of Stones.
Ben Lowe would complete the scoreline at 10-2 and force the loudest cheer of the night with his first ever professional goal and point, in a well taken goal with just two minutes remaining in the game.
Having professionally dispatched a continually hard working Capitals side - who deservedly received a heart-warming round of applause at the end of the sixty minutes from home fans - the Stingrays now face a Nottingham side in tatters after losing 7-2 to Belfast on Saturday night before heading back home to take on Cardiff, who finally had their 22 game winning streak ended tonight in a shootout in Dundee, on Sunday night.
FBB Rating
7
Three Stars
1- Lee Esders (2+0)
2- Jozef Sladok (1+1)
3- Ben Lowe (1+0)
EIHL Gamesheet
