Cloutier retaining hope for Hull’s Cup campaign

The reason for that was mainly Saturday night’s performance at home in the league to Dundee Stars when, at the fourth time of asking this season, Hull got the better of their Gardiner Conference rivals in a 4-3 win.

Only a late rally gave the Scottish visitors hope after Hull found themselves deservedly 4-1 up less than three minutes into the third period.

Some sloppy defending allowed Billy Bagron and AJ MacLean to bring the Stars back to within one goal but, thanks to a couple of smart saves from British netminder Ben Bowns, the home side hung on to end an eight-game winless streak.

That such a run had contained four shoot-out defeats suggested there wasn’t much that Hull were doing wrong, although three goals in four games going into Saturday night’s clash at Hull Arena was something which needed to be improve upon.

And although Bagron had put the Stars ahead on a breakaway in the eight-minute, it wasn’t long before the home side found their range, with defenceman Jeff Smith on hand to level at 11.26.

Before the first period break, Jason Silverthorn found the target and it became 3-1 when the skilful and quick-moving Janis Ozolins scored on the powerplay at 24.20.

A sublime finish from Ozolins at 42.21 then proved to be the game-winning strike.

“That was a big, big win for us against Dundee,” said Cloutier, who was missing defenceman Kurtis Dulle due to a stomach bug.

“It’s a big two points for us. It would have been nice to get something out of the game in Sheffield – I though we were worth a point. But it wasn’t to be, although we performed well.

“We’ve got a couple of Challenge Cup games left. If we can beat Coventry and Cardiff it still gives us an outside chance of making the last eight.”