Cloutier signs again for Stingrays

The 37-year-old AHL veteran is looking to take his team into the Elite League final four play-off weekend for the first-ever time, with a seventh-place regular season already assured.

Who Stingrays will face in the first round of the play-offs remains to be seen with Sheffield Steelers, Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants set to take their three-way title fight all the way into the last weekend of the regular season.

“I am extremely excited about coming back next year and building on what we have achieved already,” said Cloutier, whose side couldn’t mark the news of his return with a win when they suffered a surprisingly heavy 7-2 defeat at home to the Coventry Blaze on Wednesday night.

“The organisation wanted me back and I wanted to come back. My family and I love Hull and the area and we are enjoying our time here.

“With the new management taking over, we have made a big improvement this year and there is a lot to look forward to.

“The programme is going in the right direction both on and off the ice.”

Cloutier took over under previous owners Mike and Sue Pack in the spring of 2009.

After a difficult, injury-riddled first season in charge, which saw Hull finish bottom of an eight-team league, Cloutier rang the changes for his second term in charge.

But those plans were thrown into disarray after the Packs’ felt unable to guarantee the finances to fund another season of top-flight hockey, reluctantly folding the club only a few weeks before the start of the 2010-11 campaign.

Within a week, the owners of reigning champions Coventry Blaze agreed a deal to take the club on but, with a number of players signed by Cloutier in the summer heading elsewhere, the Canadian was forced to recruit significantly yet again.

It’s impossible to say how Cloutier’s original line-up would have fared - the majority did agree to remain - but his current roster has eventually proved to be the most competitive in the club’s short Elite League history.

Joint-owner Andy Buxton said: “With all the pre-season turmoil, Sylvain was faced with as big a challenge as any coach is likely to face and as everyone can see he has done a fantastic job.

“He has already started looking ahead to next season and hopefully with a more stable off season he will have a little more time to put together a team that will see us continue to make progress on the ice.”

Despite the good news going forward, Cloutier was left far from impressed with his players’ efforts against Coventry.

A win would have taken Hull to within three points of sixth-placed Blaze with a game in hand but, despite going ahead through Andrew Coburn’s eighth-minute opener on the power play, it proved to be a night dominated by the visitors.

Four second-period goals effectively ended the contest with Brad Cruikshank (2), Luke Fulghum and Greg Chambers making it 4-1 to the Blaze.

Two powerplay strikes at the start of the third period from Fulghum and Greg Owen and another from Dan Carlson saw Blaze hit seven, before Drew Bannister pulled one back for Hull with five minutes left.

“I am really disappointed,” said Cloutier. “We just didn’t show up for the last 40 minutes.

“It was our worst performance since way before Christmas, especially at home.”