Fightback in vain as Hull go down in Nottingham

After a goalless first period, the deadlock was broken by Hull when Brendan Jamison fired home on the powerplay at 22.38. That is how it stayed until 35.03 when Maxime Langelier-parent equalised with Panthers enjoying a man advantage of their own.

The damage was done to Hull in the first half of the final period when Nottingham scored three unanswered goals, going ahead through Chris Lawrence on the powerplay at 45.16. It was 3-1 just under two minutes later when Greg Jacina pounced.

A tall order became a mountain to climb for Hull when Mike Berube made it 4-1 at 49.33.

But Hull gave their hosts a big scare when they fought back to within one goal, Jordan Knox’s strike at 52.20 coming just 10 seconds after Will Frederick’s powerplay effort had made it 4-2.

Unfortunately that was as close as Hull got and they now turn their attention to their long weekend in Scotland which sees them take on Gardiner Conference rivals Fife Flyers and Dundee Stars as they bid to seal a play-off spot.

“I am disappointed because I felt we could have had a point,” said Stingrays’ player-coach Omar Pacha.

“It was the best we have played in the last four games, we were back to our old self.

“I thought we played well in the first two periods but we ran into penalty trouble and it hurt us in the third. We also lost Turcs (Yan Turcotte) in the box for 12 minutes in the third which put us down to four ‘D’.

“Unfortunately we could not tie it up, so we’ll just have to regroup and move on to the weekend we’ve got coming up against Fife and Dundee.”

Wednesday night’s result leaves Hull in the eighth and final play-off spot, two points better off than Edinburgh Capitals and with a game in hand.

The Capitals visit Hull on Tuesday night.