Hull Stingrays 4-1 Coventry Blaze
The Hull Stingrays tonight closed out the 12/13 Elite Ice Hockey League campaign - their tenth anniversary season - in the best possible fashion with a comfortable 4-1 victory over the playoff-bound Coventry Blaze.
Enforcer Ryan Hand returned to the line-up for the Rays following a one-game suspension, however, defenceman Martin Ondrej sat out due to a niggle picked up in the narrow loss to Sheffield last night.
The somewhat surprising news of the night came during the player introductions as it was announced that the Slovakian blueliner had signed a contract to return to Hull for a third season in 13/14 becoming the sixth player already announced by the club.
In front of a big crowd for the final game of the season - including a good following from Coventry - both sides took their time to get into the game, possibly due to the fact neither had anything riding on the game with the Blaze confirmed in fourth place in the Elite League and the Stingrays in tenth spot.
With Hand back in the line-up but Coventry enforcer Benn Olson not in the line-up it was left to former Stingrays Derek Campbell to decline the Stingrays fans favourite a fight with a fight not forthcoming early in the game, as has been the case for the entire season against the Blaze at the Hull Arena.
It was tussle, albeit an unexpected one, that brought the game to life though as Matty Davies reacted to a challenge from a Coventry player, taking the fight to Blaze captain Shea Guthrie in the corner.
Just over two minutes later the Stingrays lead through Jason Silverthorn after some great work along the boards by Tom Squires on James Griffin eventually saw a blocked shot fall to the Canadian - who beat Blaze netminder Peter Hirsch glove side.
The biggest hit of the night then followed as Dmitri Rodin - who tonight may have played his final game before retiring - crushed Steven Chalmers with a hit that saw the Brit limp off the ice with a leg injury.
With nothing to play for as far as the league standings would go, both sides were giving plenty of ice-time to their young British players, who are potentially the future of their clubs. For the Stingrays that saw Scott Robson receive his first regular shift of the season at home - following last night's game - alongside captain
Kurtis Dulle.
The 17 year old was massive surprise, putting in a brilliant performance for someone of that age, as he was to a lesser extent in his last real outing in pre-season.
Indeed, fellow youngster Sam Towner - who has benefited from ice-time, albeit small amounts, throughout season - set up Hand, who ably deked Hirsch only to disappointingly hit the bottom of the post when presented with a largely open goal. His time to end the season on a high would eventually come though.
Hirsch was again called in to action after 14 minutes as the Elite League's top scorer Jereme Tendler was put through on a breakaway only for the Danish netminder to stop Tendler with a lovely toe save down low.
Five minutes later and Tendler was again put through, only to this time be denied a goalscoring opportunity by a blatant hook by Mike Bayrack for which referee Tom Darnell awarded a penalty shot.
Third time lucky and the Stingrays number 27 made no mistake - faking a shot before reverting to backhand his shot in to a gaping goal for his 43rd and final goal of the season.
With effectively nothing to play for this weekend, the Blaze - coached tonight by next season's head coach Mattias Soderstrom - seemed happy to sit back and go through the motions for large parts of the game - none more so than the beginning of the second and third periods.
In each of the final two periods the Rays came out strongly, controlling the puck and possession and they deservedly extended their lead to 3-0 because of this in the second period with Coventry defenceman James Griffin - who made a couple of mistakes throughout the game but was impressive for someone so young and relatively inexperienced - slipping up before a neat combination of Davies and Sylvain Cloutier saw Dulle knock his 12th goal of the season home.
Somewhat harshly on Stingrays netminder Ben Bowns, his bid for a deserved second shutout of his debut Elite League campaign was denied on 49 minutes as a relatively tame Greg Leeb shot slipped through the GB international for what was one of very few sloppy goals conceded by the standout keeper this season.
Though a shutout would have put a cherry on top of the Stingrays cake for their final game of the season, a further goal from Davies - who knocked home from shot range a deflected point shot that wriggled through Hirsch's pads - and Hand's long awaited bout with Campbell would ice the victory.
Davies goal on 54 minutes was his 48th point of the season - comfortably a career best and a Stingrays best for a Brit in the Elite League - making him the top flight's fifth top British point scorer this season, capping quite the season for the 23 year old from Hull.
The final hurrah for the Stingrays 12/13 season was Hand's 13th and final fight of the season, against Campbell - who reluctantly dropped the gloves after the Rays enforcer's insistence and persistent questioning with less than a minute remaining.
The fight - unsurprisingly just his second of the season against the Blaze after their resistance to dropping the gloves with him despite being the league's most physical side - was a tame effort with Hand trying his best to to free an arm. Though neither party truly offloaded any devastating punches, Hand scored the victory with intent and a number of punches that may, or may not have connected.
A roar erupted around the Hull Arena for the final time this season as Hand stepped into the penalty box for the last time and with his name, once again, ringing out from the stands.
The final buzzer marked the end of the season and also, likely, the career's of Shane Lovdahl - who recently announced his intention to retire at the end of 12/13 - and, maybe also, 38 year old defenceman Rodin - who ceremonious touched centre ice on the final buzzer, possibly signalling the end of his 23 year career - while there may be others who also decide to call it a day.
The Stingrays ended the season with the league's top scorer (43 - Jereme Tendler), the league's 13th top scorer (25 - Dominic Osman) and the league's 5th highest pointscoring Brit (48 - Matty Davies).
Unfortunately, the only statistic that ultimately matters is that, despite all the promise and some brilliant performances, the Rays finished bottom of the Elite League, third in the Gardiner Conference and out of the playoffs - even if the gap between the playoffs and the Stingrays was incredibly marginal.
Regardless, the general feeling amongst the club's loyal fanbase is that it's been a thoroughly entertaining season in the blue and yellow of the Hull Stingrays, if not up there with one of the best in the club's ten year history.
At the end of the day, and season, the only fact that truly matters is that the Stingrays made it through their tenth season of existence under a new and local owner, Bobby McEwan, with no serious or obvious financial issues, with their pride in tact and with nothing but a potentially great future.
Here's to another 10 years!
Go Stingrays!
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| Arthur Foster photo |
Enforcer Ryan Hand returned to the line-up for the Rays following a one-game suspension, however, defenceman Martin Ondrej sat out due to a niggle picked up in the narrow loss to Sheffield last night.
The somewhat surprising news of the night came during the player introductions as it was announced that the Slovakian blueliner had signed a contract to return to Hull for a third season in 13/14 becoming the sixth player already announced by the club.
In front of a big crowd for the final game of the season - including a good following from Coventry - both sides took their time to get into the game, possibly due to the fact neither had anything riding on the game with the Blaze confirmed in fourth place in the Elite League and the Stingrays in tenth spot.
With Hand back in the line-up but Coventry enforcer Benn Olson not in the line-up it was left to former Stingrays Derek Campbell to decline the Stingrays fans favourite a fight with a fight not forthcoming early in the game, as has been the case for the entire season against the Blaze at the Hull Arena.
It was tussle, albeit an unexpected one, that brought the game to life though as Matty Davies reacted to a challenge from a Coventry player, taking the fight to Blaze captain Shea Guthrie in the corner.
Just over two minutes later the Stingrays lead through Jason Silverthorn after some great work along the boards by Tom Squires on James Griffin eventually saw a blocked shot fall to the Canadian - who beat Blaze netminder Peter Hirsch glove side.
The biggest hit of the night then followed as Dmitri Rodin - who tonight may have played his final game before retiring - crushed Steven Chalmers with a hit that saw the Brit limp off the ice with a leg injury.
With nothing to play for as far as the league standings would go, both sides were giving plenty of ice-time to their young British players, who are potentially the future of their clubs. For the Stingrays that saw Scott Robson receive his first regular shift of the season at home - following last night's game - alongside captain
Kurtis Dulle.
The 17 year old was massive surprise, putting in a brilliant performance for someone of that age, as he was to a lesser extent in his last real outing in pre-season.
Indeed, fellow youngster Sam Towner - who has benefited from ice-time, albeit small amounts, throughout season - set up Hand, who ably deked Hirsch only to disappointingly hit the bottom of the post when presented with a largely open goal. His time to end the season on a high would eventually come though.
Hirsch was again called in to action after 14 minutes as the Elite League's top scorer Jereme Tendler was put through on a breakaway only for the Danish netminder to stop Tendler with a lovely toe save down low.
Five minutes later and Tendler was again put through, only to this time be denied a goalscoring opportunity by a blatant hook by Mike Bayrack for which referee Tom Darnell awarded a penalty shot.
Third time lucky and the Stingrays number 27 made no mistake - faking a shot before reverting to backhand his shot in to a gaping goal for his 43rd and final goal of the season.
With effectively nothing to play for this weekend, the Blaze - coached tonight by next season's head coach Mattias Soderstrom - seemed happy to sit back and go through the motions for large parts of the game - none more so than the beginning of the second and third periods.
In each of the final two periods the Rays came out strongly, controlling the puck and possession and they deservedly extended their lead to 3-0 because of this in the second period with Coventry defenceman James Griffin - who made a couple of mistakes throughout the game but was impressive for someone so young and relatively inexperienced - slipping up before a neat combination of Davies and Sylvain Cloutier saw Dulle knock his 12th goal of the season home.
Somewhat harshly on Stingrays netminder Ben Bowns, his bid for a deserved second shutout of his debut Elite League campaign was denied on 49 minutes as a relatively tame Greg Leeb shot slipped through the GB international for what was one of very few sloppy goals conceded by the standout keeper this season.
Though a shutout would have put a cherry on top of the Stingrays cake for their final game of the season, a further goal from Davies - who knocked home from shot range a deflected point shot that wriggled through Hirsch's pads - and Hand's long awaited bout with Campbell would ice the victory.
Davies goal on 54 minutes was his 48th point of the season - comfortably a career best and a Stingrays best for a Brit in the Elite League - making him the top flight's fifth top British point scorer this season, capping quite the season for the 23 year old from Hull.
The final hurrah for the Stingrays 12/13 season was Hand's 13th and final fight of the season, against Campbell - who reluctantly dropped the gloves after the Rays enforcer's insistence and persistent questioning with less than a minute remaining.
The fight - unsurprisingly just his second of the season against the Blaze after their resistance to dropping the gloves with him despite being the league's most physical side - was a tame effort with Hand trying his best to to free an arm. Though neither party truly offloaded any devastating punches, Hand scored the victory with intent and a number of punches that may, or may not have connected.
A roar erupted around the Hull Arena for the final time this season as Hand stepped into the penalty box for the last time and with his name, once again, ringing out from the stands.
The final buzzer marked the end of the season and also, likely, the career's of Shane Lovdahl - who recently announced his intention to retire at the end of 12/13 - and, maybe also, 38 year old defenceman Rodin - who ceremonious touched centre ice on the final buzzer, possibly signalling the end of his 23 year career - while there may be others who also decide to call it a day.
The Stingrays ended the season with the league's top scorer (43 - Jereme Tendler), the league's 13th top scorer (25 - Dominic Osman) and the league's 5th highest pointscoring Brit (48 - Matty Davies).
Unfortunately, the only statistic that ultimately matters is that, despite all the promise and some brilliant performances, the Rays finished bottom of the Elite League, third in the Gardiner Conference and out of the playoffs - even if the gap between the playoffs and the Stingrays was incredibly marginal.
Elite Ice Hockey League 2012/2013 - Final Standings
Gardiner Conference 2012/2013 - Final Standings
At the end of the day, and season, the only fact that truly matters is that the Stingrays made it through their tenth season of existence under a new and local owner, Bobby McEwan, with no serious or obvious financial issues, with their pride in tact and with nothing but a potentially great future.
Here's to another 10 years!
Go Stingrays!
FBB Three Stars
1. Scott Robson
2. Tom Squires
3. Dmitri Rodin
