Belief growing for Stingrays as Hull club continue to defy the Elite odds

Although the East Yorkshire club go into today’s home clash with defending champions Belfast Giants on the back of two defeats, a run of four straight wins prior to that has created a buoyant mood at Hull Arena.

Qualification to the last eight of the Challenge Cup has been secured out of a group not many gave them a hope of progressing from and, ahead of this weekend, they sit third in the Gardiner Conference standings, close on the tails of top two Dundee Stars and Braehead Clan. “Everybody talks about confidence, but it is a big thing,” said Stingrays captain and defenceman Dulle

“We are feeling good about ourselves at the moment, without getting carried away. At the start of the season most people assumed Braehead were going to win this conference, but there’s a feeling here that we can maybe win it ourselves.”

Tonight sees Belfast make their second visit to Hull Arena having returned back to Northern Ireland last month with both points from a 4-1 win.

Belfast will arrive in Yorkshire top of the overall Elite League table, something not lost on Dulle.

“They take things very seriously as a team,” said 33-year-old Dulle. “They are always ready to go and in their coach they have somebody who never leaves anything out in preparing for every different game.

“What we need to make sure of is that we approach every single game with the same attitude.”

Hull have a chance to put that aim to the test when they make another trip to Scotland tomorrow, this time facing Edinburgh Capitals in another important Conference fixture.

Sheffield last night slipped to a 3-2 defeat to Nottingham. The Steelers are at home tomorrow when they welcome Fife Flyers to Ice Sheffield (6pm). Fife beat Ryan Finnerty’s team 4-2 last month.