Stingrays finally get off the mark

PATIENCE is the key for Hull Stingrays’ player-coach Sylvain Cloutier after seeing his team pick up their first point of the season.

After a 6-3 defeat at Coventry Blaze on Saturday extended their pointless start to the season to three games, Hull provided much stiffer opposition against the same side on home ice last night, going down 3-2 in overtime.

Jason Silverthorn on the powerplay and Dmitry Rodin’s short-handed effort twice pulled Stingrays level only for John Gordon to net the winner just 30 seconds into the added session on the powerplay.

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“Over the last four games, there are about 18 minutes out of the 240 where we have not played very smart and that has cost us about four points,” said Cloutier.

“It is still early. We have a good mix but we have a lot of young guys learning. We have to be patient with them, we knew that from the start.”

On Saturday, it was a case of deja vu for the Stingrays after they conceded two goals in the space of a minute in the middle of the third period – much like the previous Sunday’s 6-3 home defeat to Sheffield Steelers.

Up until that point they had been right in the game at the Skydome Arena with goals from Josh Mizerek, Jereme Tendler and Matt Davies keeping them level with Coventry.

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But an Owen Fussey goal at 49.46 was followed by another from Aaron Nell 41 seconds later to make it 5-3 to the hosts, with Fussey sealing a hat-trick in the last two minutes.

The Steelers gained swift revenge after their 4-0 loss at Cardiff Devils on Saturday, by beating their South Wales rivals on home ice last night.

Player-coach Ryan Finnerty was on target for the Steelers, along with Neil Clark, Jason Hewitt and Mike Ramsay (2), to leave them fourth in the table, one point behind early leaders Belfast.

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