Mizerek on a mission with Stingrays

Player-coach Sylvain Cloutier’s team finished seventh in the 2010-11 regular season and exited the play-offs at the first hurdle after losing to eventual runners-up Cardiff Devils over two legs.

Mizerek was close to playing a major part in Cloutier’s second season in charge at Hull Arena after signing last summer and being selected as team captain.

But after the Stingrays temporarily folded, Mizerek decide to remain in Holland for another season, despite the club being quickly saved and re-launched by the owners of Coventry Blaze. Clearly remembering why he wanted Mizerek in the first place, Cloutier decided to return to Europe to snap up the American once more.

Now Mizerek - a former team-mate of Cloutier’s as well as fellow new recruits Dmitri Suur and Frantisek Bakrlik at Adirondack Frostbite back in 2005-06 - is determined to prove his arrival will have been worth waiting for.

“Last year was unfortunate,” said Minnesota-born Mizerek. “But Clouts and the new ownership were able to put together a team and made huge strides in what could be called a ‘building year’.

“I was happy to see the Stingrays achieve the success they did and even happier to be asked to be a part of the Rays this year.”

The 33-year-old believes the reuniting of former North American team-mates will only boost Stingrays’ chances of success in the coming season.

“We had a good thing in Adirondack,” he added. “We had a great group of guys who battled hard and went through lots of adversity.

“To have played with proven winners like Suur, Bakrlik and Clouts gives me a positive sense of what to expect.”

Mizerek arrives in East Yorkshire on the back of an impressive recent record, winning the Dutch championship twice in the past four years with HYS The Hague, although he will find it difficult to repeat that feat in the UK’s top-flight.

“I just want to win,” he said. “Personal accolades take a back seat because this is a team sport.

“I’m not going to speculate on goals and assists or a top-four finish in league standings or anything like that. First and foremost, coming together as a team is the key.

“To win a championship, however, that takes something special and is difficult to script.”