Hull Stingrays 4-6 Nottingham Panthers (Challenge Cup)
Forward Jereme Tendler tonight notched a goal to become the Hull Stingrays all-time leading goalscorer but was unable to help his side defeat the Nottingham Panthers in the Challenge Cup as they lost out 6-4 in a tight affair.
With Nottingham - the reigning Challenge Cup champions - already qualified for the Quarter Final stage and the Stingrays all but guaranteed an early exit, the game was something of a dead rubber.
Indeed, the Panthers rested starting netminder Craig Kowalski and forward Lynn Loyns ahead of the start of their Continental Cup campaign, while the Stingrays were without Derek Campbell following his release and suspension last week and Jeff Smith - who received an automatic one-game ban for the match penalty he received in Saturday's victory over Fife.
Facing Nottingham back-up netminder Dan Green, the Stingrays immediately set about testing the British stopper with a series of early shots. Having put in a number of shaky performances in Hull in the past, Green's confidence grew early on as the Rays applied that pressure thanks to two early powerplay opportunities.
The Panthers soon after got their own first powerplay chance of the evening thanks to a Kyle Mariani tripping penalty and they duly and clinically converted for a 1-0 lead. David Clarke picking up a loose pass that had been fired across the Stingrays net before instinctively firing the puck goal bound with Rays netminder Ben Bowns stretching but unable to deny his fellow GB international on 8.19.
An immediate response followed from the Stingrays though as an awful giveaway from Panthers British defenceman Tom Norton gifted the puck to Rays player-coach Sylvain Cloutier - who made no mistake levelling the scores less than 30 seconds later with his first of the season.
Guillaume Doucet then gave the Stingrays a somewhat surprise lead on 10.04, rushing into the zone two-on-two before picking his spot perfectly over the shoulder of Green.
Nottingham responded by controlling the play five-on-five for long periods of the first period with Leigh Salters and the always impressive Matt Francis using a combination of speed and strength to keep the pressure on the Rays in their own end.
The home side did eventually break up the pressure and a great shift from Cloutier on rangy Panthers defenceman Brent Henley eventually forced a great chance for Tendler close in front only for Joonas Saari to deny the opportunity with a clever, perfectly timed infraction.
On the ensuing powerplay the Stingrays were again gifted possession thanks to some sloppy Panthers defending. That allowed a two-on-one Stingrays break only for utility player Mariani to fire his one-timer wide when presented with a gaping net and when it seemed easier to score.
Such is the cruelty of sport, while the Stingrays were ruing a miss that would have put them two goals to the good heading into the first intermission, the Panthers broke and leveled the score through defenceman Chris Murray with less than 30 seconds to play in the period.
The thoroughly enjoyable, 'nothing' game opened up somewhat in the second period as the visitors piled on the pressure five-on-five, only for the Stingrays to determinedly counter-attack - albeit much of the time to little or no effect with a lack of numbers evidently hurting their depth.
The biggest chance of what was a penalty strewn secondperiod for the Rays - with Martin Ondrej picking up a ten minute misconduct for abuse of an official when disputing an earlier call - again fell to Cloutier - who shot his one-timer the wrong side of the post when left open shorthanded.
Former Hull Thunder forward Jonathan Weaver would then give the Panthers a deserved second period lead on 31.43, firing home a point shot on a well oiled Nottingham powerplay for a 3-2 lead.
As the period wore down Jason Silverthorn - who registered a two point night and four point weekend - broke through one-on-one on Dan Green only to be denied by the British netminder - who stopped 23 or 27 shots on the night.
Though there had already been noticeable improvements in the opening two periods from the Stingrays on recent weeks, they further stepped their game up in the third period and took the game to the away side.
It took them just 40 seconds of the third period to equalise on a penalty taken by Salters late in the second with a rebound from a Silverthorn pointshot falling to that man Tendler.
Picking the rebound up in an awkward position almost with his back to net, Tendler backhanded the puck goal bound, beating Green for his fifth goal in five consecutive games and, more significantly, his 139th goal in 181 games in Hull Stingrays colours.
That goal put daylight between Tendler and former fan favourite Jeff Glowa - on 138 goals - to make the the Saskatchewan native the Stingrays all-time leading goal scorer.
Not only has Tendler broken the record but he has done so in a significantly shorter period, hitting the mark in 181 games and three and a quarter seasons as opposed to Glowa's 304 games - still a Stingrays record - and six seasons.
Ignoring the record, the Panthers struck back less than two minutes later as Brandon Benedict was left unmarked in the slot on the powerplay to polish off another well worked powerplay goal as they went three-for-six on the man advantage on the night.
The Stingrays would hit the post through Guillaume Doucet before finding their third and final equaliser of the night.
Having been caught by a stick mid-ice on what he believed should've been an infraction, Carl Lauzon - who, it has to be said, has so far struggled in his early Stingrays career - determinedly skated through the Panthers with speed but at relative ease and coolly slotted home for a powerplay goal that leveled the score at 4-4.
The goal is just Lauzon's second in nine games for the Stingrays, however, more is expected from a player that has consistently been a top scorer in the French top flight over the last three seasons.
Shortly after tying the score, Lauzon and fellow French-Canadian Doucet broke through two-on-one only to be denied a sure-fire goal thanks to a perfectly timed block from the Panthers last defenceman that prevented the puck finding Lauzon at the back post.
After missing a number of big chances throughout the game, the Stingrays were made to pay by the powerful and clinical Panthers in the last ten minutes - despite outplaying them for periods in the third.
Stingrays captain Matt Suderman initially thwarted a charge at the net by Panthers forward Salters, only for his poke-check to force the puck into the path of experienced centre Bob Wren - who fired home the Panthers fifth of the evening and eventual game winning goal.
The goal broke the Stingrays determined spirit with seven minutes to play and, in a subdued final five minutes, Salters would eventually get his goal with just over two minutes to play.
The victory all-but clinches Challenge Cup Group B for the Panthers and eliminates the Stingrays from quarter final contention with three games yet to play.
Despite that and the end result on the night, there are undoubtedly positives to take from the Stingrays performance both tonight and the 4-1 win over Fife last night.
There has been a noted improvement in performance and desire over the last week - perhaps partially a case of fighting against the adversity caused by last weekend's Derek Campbell incident.
Regardless of why, the Stingrays must maintain that momentum heading into next weekend as the Dundee Stars return to the Hull Arena less than two weeks after the Campbell incident.
Forward Jereme Tendler tonight notched a goal to become the Hull Stingrays all-time leading goalscorer but was unable to help his side defeat the Nottingham Panthers in the Challenge Cup as they lost out 6-4 in a tight affair.
With Nottingham - the reigning Challenge Cup champions - already qualified for the Quarter Final stage and the Stingrays all but guaranteed an early exit, the game was something of a dead rubber.
Indeed, the Panthers rested starting netminder Craig Kowalski and forward Lynn Loyns ahead of the start of their Continental Cup campaign, while the Stingrays were without Derek Campbell following his release and suspension last week and Jeff Smith - who received an automatic one-game ban for the match penalty he received in Saturday's victory over Fife.
Facing Nottingham back-up netminder Dan Green, the Stingrays immediately set about testing the British stopper with a series of early shots. Having put in a number of shaky performances in Hull in the past, Green's confidence grew early on as the Rays applied that pressure thanks to two early powerplay opportunities.
The Panthers soon after got their own first powerplay chance of the evening thanks to a Kyle Mariani tripping penalty and they duly and clinically converted for a 1-0 lead. David Clarke picking up a loose pass that had been fired across the Stingrays net before instinctively firing the puck goal bound with Rays netminder Ben Bowns stretching but unable to deny his fellow GB international on 8.19.
An immediate response followed from the Stingrays though as an awful giveaway from Panthers British defenceman Tom Norton gifted the puck to Rays player-coach Sylvain Cloutier - who made no mistake levelling the scores less than 30 seconds later with his first of the season.
Guillaume Doucet then gave the Stingrays a somewhat surprise lead on 10.04, rushing into the zone two-on-two before picking his spot perfectly over the shoulder of Green.
Nottingham responded by controlling the play five-on-five for long periods of the first period with Leigh Salters and the always impressive Matt Francis using a combination of speed and strength to keep the pressure on the Rays in their own end.
The home side did eventually break up the pressure and a great shift from Cloutier on rangy Panthers defenceman Brent Henley eventually forced a great chance for Tendler close in front only for Joonas Saari to deny the opportunity with a clever, perfectly timed infraction.
On the ensuing powerplay the Stingrays were again gifted possession thanks to some sloppy Panthers defending. That allowed a two-on-one Stingrays break only for utility player Mariani to fire his one-timer wide when presented with a gaping net and when it seemed easier to score.
Such is the cruelty of sport, while the Stingrays were ruing a miss that would have put them two goals to the good heading into the first intermission, the Panthers broke and leveled the score through defenceman Chris Murray with less than 30 seconds to play in the period.
The thoroughly enjoyable, 'nothing' game opened up somewhat in the second period as the visitors piled on the pressure five-on-five, only for the Stingrays to determinedly counter-attack - albeit much of the time to little or no effect with a lack of numbers evidently hurting their depth.
The biggest chance of what was a penalty strewn secondperiod for the Rays - with Martin Ondrej picking up a ten minute misconduct for abuse of an official when disputing an earlier call - again fell to Cloutier - who shot his one-timer the wrong side of the post when left open shorthanded.
Former Hull Thunder forward Jonathan Weaver would then give the Panthers a deserved second period lead on 31.43, firing home a point shot on a well oiled Nottingham powerplay for a 3-2 lead.
As the period wore down Jason Silverthorn - who registered a two point night and four point weekend - broke through one-on-one on Dan Green only to be denied by the British netminder - who stopped 23 or 27 shots on the night.
Though there had already been noticeable improvements in the opening two periods from the Stingrays on recent weeks, they further stepped their game up in the third period and took the game to the away side.
It took them just 40 seconds of the third period to equalise on a penalty taken by Salters late in the second with a rebound from a Silverthorn pointshot falling to that man Tendler.
Picking the rebound up in an awkward position almost with his back to net, Tendler backhanded the puck goal bound, beating Green for his fifth goal in five consecutive games and, more significantly, his 139th goal in 181 games in Hull Stingrays colours.
That goal put daylight between Tendler and former fan favourite Jeff Glowa - on 138 goals - to make the the Saskatchewan native the Stingrays all-time leading goal scorer.
Not only has Tendler broken the record but he has done so in a significantly shorter period, hitting the mark in 181 games and three and a quarter seasons as opposed to Glowa's 304 games - still a Stingrays record - and six seasons.
Stingrays All-Time Leading Goalscorers
1. Jereme Tendler - 139 (181 games)
2. Jeff Glowa - 138 (304 games)
3. Jason Silverthorn - 96 (227 games)
4. Konstantin Kalmikov - 78 (166 games)
5. Slava Koulikov - 66 (227 games)
*Source: Elite Prospects
The Stingrays would hit the post through Guillaume Doucet before finding their third and final equaliser of the night.
Having been caught by a stick mid-ice on what he believed should've been an infraction, Carl Lauzon - who, it has to be said, has so far struggled in his early Stingrays career - determinedly skated through the Panthers with speed but at relative ease and coolly slotted home for a powerplay goal that leveled the score at 4-4.
The goal is just Lauzon's second in nine games for the Stingrays, however, more is expected from a player that has consistently been a top scorer in the French top flight over the last three seasons.
Shortly after tying the score, Lauzon and fellow French-Canadian Doucet broke through two-on-one only to be denied a sure-fire goal thanks to a perfectly timed block from the Panthers last defenceman that prevented the puck finding Lauzon at the back post.
After missing a number of big chances throughout the game, the Stingrays were made to pay by the powerful and clinical Panthers in the last ten minutes - despite outplaying them for periods in the third.
Stingrays captain Matt Suderman initially thwarted a charge at the net by Panthers forward Salters, only for his poke-check to force the puck into the path of experienced centre Bob Wren - who fired home the Panthers fifth of the evening and eventual game winning goal.
The goal broke the Stingrays determined spirit with seven minutes to play and, in a subdued final five minutes, Salters would eventually get his goal with just over two minutes to play.
The victory all-but clinches Challenge Cup Group B for the Panthers and eliminates the Stingrays from quarter final contention with three games yet to play.
Despite that and the end result on the night, there are undoubtedly positives to take from the Stingrays performance both tonight and the 4-1 win over Fife last night.
There has been a noted improvement in performance and desire over the last week - perhaps partially a case of fighting against the adversity caused by last weekend's Derek Campbell incident.
Regardless of why, the Stingrays must maintain that momentum heading into next weekend as the Dundee Stars return to the Hull Arena less than two weeks after the Campbell incident.
FBB Three Stars
1. Omar Pacha (0+1)
2. Martin Ondrej (0+0)
3. Guillaume Doucet (1+0)
