Hull Stingrays 3-2 Fife Flyers
The Hull Stingrays tonight reached top spot in the Gardiner Conference thanks to a scrappy but hard-fought 3-2 victory over conference rivals the Fife Flyers - their second win over the Scottish side in just over a week - in front of a healthy crowd of over 1100.
The Rays surprisingly handed a home-debut to British forward Tom Squires - Thursday's two-way signing from the Sheffield Steeldogs - who was cleared to play despite his parent club facing the Manchester Phoenix in the English Premier League this evening.
It was Squires and fellow former Steeldog Janis Ozolins who combined well for the games first opportunity after two minutes, forcing Bryan Pitton to make a smart glove save.
Contrary to a week earlier when the visitors came out flying, it was the home side who dominated large periods of the opening stanza. However, on this occasion, penalty trouble - including two minor penalties on Dominic Osman and one a-piece on Matty Davies and Ryan Hand - prevented the Rays from truly utilising and building off their early momentum as Fife had done last week with team's closing out a fairly dour first period in a stalemate.
An injury to Cale Tanaka forced Sylvain Cloutier to re-shuffle his offensive lines and the result was an incoherent second period - though admittedly that was more of a continuation from both sides than a result of the line-changes.
Against the run of play, the Flyers then took the lead after 32.23 - Jeff Caister firing a low slapshot through a crowd and past Ben Bowns for the first goal of the game.
The goal brought some life to the fixture and, just over two minutes later, the Rays misfiring offence launched a spritely counter-attack whcih saw Dominic Osman bag a much needed goal to level the scores albeit in somewhat controversial fashion if you're from Kirkcaldy, to level the scores.
With Osman breaking down the wing, Rays centre Davies was knocked to the floor by a Fife player off the puck. Seeing this, referee Keiran O'Hallloran raised his arm to call the penalty and, incorrectly given the Rays still had possession of the puck, blew the whistle just as Osman's shot found its way home. After initial confusion, the correct decision was eventually reached as the goal - a wristshot from the top of the circle - was given.
A disappointing, largely uninspiring opening two periods left the game finely poised heading into the final 20 minutes.
Nevertheless, the game continued in a similar fashion for the opening stages of the final period, that was until the puck fell perfectly to the stick of Rays topscorer Janis Ozolins - who slotted home nine minutes in for a 2-1 Stingrays lead following a frantic scramble in front of the Flyers net to finally awaken the big but quiet home following.
Four minutes later, player-coach Clouter recorded his second goal in two home games thanks to a perfect pass on a two-on-one from an unusually off-key Jereme Tendler for a crucial 3-1 lead.
Flyers forward Jason Pitton then deftly re-directed a floating point shot from Flyers standout Caister past Bowns four minutes later to once again make it a one goal game.
Having appeared confident following two quick goals and 3-1 lead, the Rays retreated into their own end and spent much of the final five minutes defending their own goal as the Flyers piled on the pressure looking for an equaliser that - despite their pressure - never looked like arriving.
Todd Dutiaume's side never truly troubled the Rays in what turned out to be a scrappy, largely uninspiring match-up - although at 0-0 and 1-1 it was anyone's game - and, despite outshooting the Rays 17-7 in the final 20, the Rays saw out their second one goal win over the Flyers this season.
It was by no means vintage stuff from the Rays and it was a struggle to pick out three standout performers from the victorious side, however, they scraped out a victory which not only improves them to 2-0 against Fife this season but also sends them top of the Gardiner Conference with a 4-2-3 record.
In fact, the Rays have struggled to put up a 60 minutes performance in any of their last three games and yet they have come away, top of their conference, in the Challenge Cup Quarter Finals and with a three game win streak to boot.
Of the victory Cloutier said:
Canadian Greg Blais - signed specifically to replace Bowns during his absence - will fill in between the pipes next weekend (and possibly the following Tuesday in Fife depending on Bowns' fitness when he returns) in what will surely be a physical double header against the Coventry Blaze
The temporary addition of Blais increases the Rays to 12 imports, one more than is allowed under EIHL rules, meaning one import classified player will have to sit out.
The injury to Tanaka - believed to be a possible broken collarbone - makes Cloutier's decision over who to sit easier, with the player-coach otherwise thought likely to have sat and coached from the bench during Bowns' absence.
On the Tanaka injury Cloutier added:
The Hull Stingrays tonight reached top spot in the Gardiner Conference thanks to a scrappy but hard-fought 3-2 victory over conference rivals the Fife Flyers - their second win over the Scottish side in just over a week - in front of a healthy crowd of over 1100.
The Rays surprisingly handed a home-debut to British forward Tom Squires - Thursday's two-way signing from the Sheffield Steeldogs - who was cleared to play despite his parent club facing the Manchester Phoenix in the English Premier League this evening.
It was Squires and fellow former Steeldog Janis Ozolins who combined well for the games first opportunity after two minutes, forcing Bryan Pitton to make a smart glove save.
Contrary to a week earlier when the visitors came out flying, it was the home side who dominated large periods of the opening stanza. However, on this occasion, penalty trouble - including two minor penalties on Dominic Osman and one a-piece on Matty Davies and Ryan Hand - prevented the Rays from truly utilising and building off their early momentum as Fife had done last week with team's closing out a fairly dour first period in a stalemate.
An injury to Cale Tanaka forced Sylvain Cloutier to re-shuffle his offensive lines and the result was an incoherent second period - though admittedly that was more of a continuation from both sides than a result of the line-changes.
Against the run of play, the Flyers then took the lead after 32.23 - Jeff Caister firing a low slapshot through a crowd and past Ben Bowns for the first goal of the game.
The goal brought some life to the fixture and, just over two minutes later, the Rays misfiring offence launched a spritely counter-attack whcih saw Dominic Osman bag a much needed goal to level the scores albeit in somewhat controversial fashion if you're from Kirkcaldy, to level the scores.
With Osman breaking down the wing, Rays centre Davies was knocked to the floor by a Fife player off the puck. Seeing this, referee Keiran O'Hallloran raised his arm to call the penalty and, incorrectly given the Rays still had possession of the puck, blew the whistle just as Osman's shot found its way home. After initial confusion, the correct decision was eventually reached as the goal - a wristshot from the top of the circle - was given.
A disappointing, largely uninspiring opening two periods left the game finely poised heading into the final 20 minutes.
Nevertheless, the game continued in a similar fashion for the opening stages of the final period, that was until the puck fell perfectly to the stick of Rays topscorer Janis Ozolins - who slotted home nine minutes in for a 2-1 Stingrays lead following a frantic scramble in front of the Flyers net to finally awaken the big but quiet home following.
Four minutes later, player-coach Clouter recorded his second goal in two home games thanks to a perfect pass on a two-on-one from an unusually off-key Jereme Tendler for a crucial 3-1 lead.
Flyers forward Jason Pitton then deftly re-directed a floating point shot from Flyers standout Caister past Bowns four minutes later to once again make it a one goal game.
Having appeared confident following two quick goals and 3-1 lead, the Rays retreated into their own end and spent much of the final five minutes defending their own goal as the Flyers piled on the pressure looking for an equaliser that - despite their pressure - never looked like arriving.
Todd Dutiaume's side never truly troubled the Rays in what turned out to be a scrappy, largely uninspiring match-up - although at 0-0 and 1-1 it was anyone's game - and, despite outshooting the Rays 17-7 in the final 20, the Rays saw out their second one goal win over the Flyers this season.
It was by no means vintage stuff from the Rays and it was a struggle to pick out three standout performers from the victorious side, however, they scraped out a victory which not only improves them to 2-0 against Fife this season but also sends them top of the Gardiner Conference with a 4-2-3 record.
In fact, the Rays have struggled to put up a 60 minutes performance in any of their last three games and yet they have come away, top of their conference, in the Challenge Cup Quarter Finals and with a three game win streak to boot.
Of the victory Cloutier said:
"It is a big win. It was a close game but we found a way in the third period to break them. They got back in the game but we found a way to get the two points. There are going to be nights when you play a great game and get nothing. Tonight it was ugly but we got the win. We are now top of the conference which is nice and we want to keep going and keep taking points. There is no reason why we cannot be one or two in our group."With Ben Bowns travelling to Japan with the Great Britain senior side early next week for the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament, the challenge to extend that streak looks a big one.
Canadian Greg Blais - signed specifically to replace Bowns during his absence - will fill in between the pipes next weekend (and possibly the following Tuesday in Fife depending on Bowns' fitness when he returns) in what will surely be a physical double header against the Coventry Blaze
The temporary addition of Blais increases the Rays to 12 imports, one more than is allowed under EIHL rules, meaning one import classified player will have to sit out.
The injury to Tanaka - believed to be a possible broken collarbone - makes Cloutier's decision over who to sit easier, with the player-coach otherwise thought likely to have sat and coached from the bench during Bowns' absence.
On the Tanaka injury Cloutier added:
"He is one of our key players and has done a great job for us this season. We don’t want to lose him so hopefully he will be OK. He has a lot of talent, has good skill and can skate. He is one of my key guys and I can count on him every night. Hopefully we will get some good news with Cale because everything is going our way right now. But if he is out for a few weeks then we need other guys to step up and take their chance. It will be an opportunity for [Chris] Sykes and [Sam] Towner and Wardo [Andy Ward] who is hoping to be back practicing with us this week."
FBB Three Stars
1. Janis Ozolins
2. Martin Ondrej
3. Ben Bowns
