Excel Hull Stingrays 2 - 3 Nottingham Panthers
The Excel Hull Stingrays tonight once again found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 scoreline against the Nottingham Panthers at the Hull Arena, losing out to a Marc Levers second period goal.
Beginning the match minus a full forward line - with Ryan Lake and Tristan Harper sidelined through injury and Derek Campbell serving the second of a three match suspension - the Stingrays began the game with Kingston Jets forward Andy Ward, 16 year old Bobby Chamberlain and defenceman Dan Scott spread throughout their top three forward lines.
Despite drafting in replacements to make up for the short bench, it was soon clear that it would be a lack of quality bodies and certainly not a lack of hard work that would cost the Rays in the long term.
The Panthers opened the scoring with a moment of sheer genius from forward Jordan Fox, who dipsy-doodled around defenceman Dmitri Rodin having picked up the puck from a Stingrays giveaway, neatly slotting home shorthanded past Christian Boucher after four minutes.
The visitors deservedly doubled that lead on 17 minutes, a routine powerplay one timer from the blueline by David Clarke finding twine as Nottingham's deep bench took a two goal lead into the second and certainly didn't look like letting up.
Stingrays forward Dominic Osman - having easily his best all around game in a Stingrays jersey yet, just days after coach Sylvain Cloutier publicly stated he and Campbell needed to step up offensively - then got the home side on the board, robbing the puck from Nottingham player-coach Corey Neilson before ghosting in on Craig Kowalski to delightfully fire home and halve the Panthers lead shorthanded.
Somehow heading into the third the home team found themselves still in a game that, based on offensive cohesion, they had no right to be in. Still, work rate and an all in attitude to defence saw them just one goal down, though Marc Levers extended the Panthers lead to two with an easy backdoor finish on a two-on-one which materialised as a result of another Rays turnover in their own end.
The home team continued to battle however, and a very well worked powerplay opportunity between Matty Davies, Osman and Cloutier, saw Davies all alone in front to net his second of the year on a feed from behind after 49 minutes to cut the deficit to one once again.
That would be as close as the Stingrays would come though as they tried to no avail to snatch a point in the final ten minutes that their workrate deserved but their performance in comparison to the Panthers did not.
Cloutier looked thoroughly displeased with his side after they went into the first intermission 2-0 down and, at that point, the odds for player changes next week looked short. Still, an improved second and third period and yet another tight result against a top four side with three players missing will be encouraging to him. Still, critics will say that merely papers over the cracks which - despite the work rate - were once again visible tonight.
The Rays boss takes his team to Coventry tomorrow night in an effective dead rubber in Challenge Cup Group B with qualification for both sides unlikely.
Perhaps crucially, after tomorrow nights game the Rays play Scottish quartet Edinburgh, Dundee, Braehead and Fife. Whether he makes changes before these games in order to create momentum or waits to see what his team can produce in fixtures against their so called bottom five mini-league remains to be see.
Changes do seem more likely than not at present - though only if Cloutier can find the right player or players available, as he did last year, miraculously bringing in veteran Drew Bannister for young Latvian Kriss Grundmanis.
The Excel Hull Stingrays tonight once again found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 scoreline against the Nottingham Panthers at the Hull Arena, losing out to a Marc Levers second period goal.
Beginning the match minus a full forward line - with Ryan Lake and Tristan Harper sidelined through injury and Derek Campbell serving the second of a three match suspension - the Stingrays began the game with Kingston Jets forward Andy Ward, 16 year old Bobby Chamberlain and defenceman Dan Scott spread throughout their top three forward lines.
Despite drafting in replacements to make up for the short bench, it was soon clear that it would be a lack of quality bodies and certainly not a lack of hard work that would cost the Rays in the long term.
The Panthers opened the scoring with a moment of sheer genius from forward Jordan Fox, who dipsy-doodled around defenceman Dmitri Rodin having picked up the puck from a Stingrays giveaway, neatly slotting home shorthanded past Christian Boucher after four minutes.
The visitors deservedly doubled that lead on 17 minutes, a routine powerplay one timer from the blueline by David Clarke finding twine as Nottingham's deep bench took a two goal lead into the second and certainly didn't look like letting up.
Stingrays forward Dominic Osman - having easily his best all around game in a Stingrays jersey yet, just days after coach Sylvain Cloutier publicly stated he and Campbell needed to step up offensively - then got the home side on the board, robbing the puck from Nottingham player-coach Corey Neilson before ghosting in on Craig Kowalski to delightfully fire home and halve the Panthers lead shorthanded.
Somehow heading into the third the home team found themselves still in a game that, based on offensive cohesion, they had no right to be in. Still, work rate and an all in attitude to defence saw them just one goal down, though Marc Levers extended the Panthers lead to two with an easy backdoor finish on a two-on-one which materialised as a result of another Rays turnover in their own end.
The home team continued to battle however, and a very well worked powerplay opportunity between Matty Davies, Osman and Cloutier, saw Davies all alone in front to net his second of the year on a feed from behind after 49 minutes to cut the deficit to one once again.
That would be as close as the Stingrays would come though as they tried to no avail to snatch a point in the final ten minutes that their workrate deserved but their performance in comparison to the Panthers did not.
Cloutier looked thoroughly displeased with his side after they went into the first intermission 2-0 down and, at that point, the odds for player changes next week looked short. Still, an improved second and third period and yet another tight result against a top four side with three players missing will be encouraging to him. Still, critics will say that merely papers over the cracks which - despite the work rate - were once again visible tonight.
The Rays boss takes his team to Coventry tomorrow night in an effective dead rubber in Challenge Cup Group B with qualification for both sides unlikely.
Perhaps crucially, after tomorrow nights game the Rays play Scottish quartet Edinburgh, Dundee, Braehead and Fife. Whether he makes changes before these games in order to create momentum or waits to see what his team can produce in fixtures against their so called bottom five mini-league remains to be see.
Changes do seem more likely than not at present - though only if Cloutier can find the right player or players available, as he did last year, miraculously bringing in veteran Drew Bannister for young Latvian Kriss Grundmanis.
Rays Rating
6
FBB Three Stars
1 - Dominic Osman (1+1)
2 - Sam McCluskey (0+0)
3 - Christian Boucher (29 saves)
