Cloutier pleased with Stingrays' progress

It gave Stingrays their fourth win in six matches and pulled them closer to second-bottom side Sheffield Steelers, who were leapfrogged by Edinburgh Capitals following a four-point weekend for the Scottish side and only a one-point return for the reigning league and play-off champions.

Stingrays had to settle for just two points from the weekend after they went down 4-1 at Nottingham Panthers on Saturday, although Cloutier - as with Wednesday's 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Coventry - was full of praise for his players.

Against Newcastle, Curtis Huppe put Stingrays ahead with his 10th goal of the season at 7.58, although Vipers were level within a minute through Matus Petricko.

Lee Esders restored the home side's one-goal lead at 13.38 only for Jason Tejchma's short-handed strike to tie matters once again.

Dave Longstaff then handed the visitors the lead for the first time at 29.20 before leading goalscorer Konstantin Kalmikov struck twice, firstly at 35.32 and then again just over four minutes later to edge the hosts ahead.

After Vipers pulled former Steelers goaltender Kevin Reiter in favour of the extra skater, Lee Mitchell secured the points with an empty-net goal in the last minute.

"We didn't play the way we did against Coventry and Nottingham," said Cloutier.

"I thought we played better in those games even though we didn't get the results.

"We were on a bit of a roll and then played two great games against two top teams last week, but to get back to winning ways shows we are turning the corner and the guys are starting to believe they can do it."

Stingrays had shocked Panthers last month with a 5-4 home win but couldn't come back from being three goals behind in Nottingham.

Goals from Kevin Bergin, Johan Molin and Cameron Mann saw the home side take a commanding lead and although Adam Knight reduced the deficit at 31.49, Sean McAslan added a fourth in the 53rd minute to make the points safe for Panthers.