Shoot-out drama yields joy for Steelers and Stingrays

Doug Christiansen’s team had lost 5-0 to Swiss A Division side Ambri Piotta on Saturday, 24 hours after going down 4-2 to HC Kosice.

But goaltender Frank Doyle came up big for the Steelers in Hungary, giving the team a timely boost before their trip home to prepare for the Elite League’s opening weekend.

And while it may have only come in a pre-season friendly, Hull Stingrays finally enjoyed some shoot-out success of their own when sealing a pre-season double over Edinburgh Capitals on Sunday night in Scotland.

Sylvain Cloutier’s side failed in every single one of their eight shoot-outs during the 2012-13 campaign, but had forward Jereme Tendler to thank for giving them a win on penalty shots, sealing a 5-4 road win in addition to the 9-0 thumping they gave the Capitals on home ice last week.

Before heading back to the UK, Steelers head coach Christiansen conceded his team had endured a short and punishing schedule when factoring in the travel involved at times, but said he was delighted with the way the European adventure had gone.

“This weekend has been perfect for us,” said Christiansen. “Hard work, a tough schedule but we have got such a lot out of it. With so many new players they have been able to bond and enjoy each others company. They have been through adversity and have shown incredible character. Their bodies ache but the benefit is ahead of them.

“The main thing we have achieved is team building, it’s so important. These guys have to spend Christmas together, bus trips together so for them to get to know each other quickly is so important.

“I have quickly learnt that our defence is outstanding. We have found some timely goal scorers and we have a group that have bought in, every one of them who played this weekend gave us the best effort and showed me that if we do that for 52 league and challenge cup games add the play offs on top of that, I will be very satisfied.”

Cloutier’s team finish their pre-season schedule with the second leg of the Bradfield Brewery Cup against Sheffield Steeldogs on Wednesday in Hull.

Stingrays battled back from 5-2 down to tie 5-5 at Sheffield Steeldogs on Wednesday night, and found themselves 3-0 and 4-1 behind in Edinburgh before eventually prevailing.

Jason Silverthorn grabbed Stingrays’ first and third goal, sandwiching an effort from Guillaume Doucet, before player-coach Sylvain Cloutier tied the game at 4-4 with 18 seconds left after they had pulled netminder Ben Bowns for an extra skater. Tendler then won it for Stingrays in the shoot-out, ending their long losing streak.

“Perhaps the tide is turning now (in the shoot-outs),” said Cloutier. “We came back from behind again and that shows you the character we have. I know it was only a challenge game but it gets you into good habits.

“We played a lot of the first period short-handed but we did not allow ourselves to get too frustrated. We took our time to get going but we kept plugging away and I thought we were the better team in the third and controlled the game.”