Stingrays leave Belfast empty-handed

Outshot 41 to 18, Sylvain Cloutier’s side did themselves few favours after falling 5-1 behind early in the third period. They quickly recovered to make it a two-goal game with more than 10 minutes left on the clock, but it was as close as they came as the Giants responded positively to last weekend’s opening night defeat to Sheffield Steelers.

Doug Christiansen’s side, regarded by many as hot favourites to land the regular season title, got themselves in front at 3.31 when Brock McBride found a way past netminder Christian Boucher. But American winger Dominic Osman marked his league debut for the Yorkshire club with an equaliser just over two minutes later.

Former Steelers’ favourite Robert Dowd then chalked up his first of the season for his new club when he edged the home side ahead once again in the 18th minute.

It was the second period which hurt the Stingrays most as the Giants scored two unanswered goals, the first coming from Craig Peacock at 21.52, before Jeff Mason made it 4-1 in the 35th minute.

When Benoit Doucet extended the home team’s advantage to 5-1 in the 43rd minute it seemed a lost cause for the visitors, but they ensured the Giants endured a nervous end to the night after hitting back with two goals in four minutes.

Last season’s leading scorer Jereme Tendler was first to pounce, firing home past Stephen Murphy at 43.39 before captain Josh Mizerek made it 5-3 at 47.25. But the visitors found chances hard to come by and couldn’t make any further inroads into their hosts’ lead.

Cloutier will be hoping his team can respond on Sunday night when they stage their first home game of the season by welcoming Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steelers to Hull Arena (6pm).

The Steelers have always found points hard to come by at Kingston Park and Cloutier hopes to give them a similarly rough ride this season.

“They are the defending champions and have a lot of last season’s roster back,” said Cloutier.

“They are going to be up there challenging again and they had a great win in Belfast last weekend. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for them and compete hard all night.”

Tickets for Hull v Sheffield (face-off 6pm) are available priced between £7-15 (family of four £37) by contacting the Hull Arena Box Office on 01482 325252 or emailing [email protected].

For further information go to http://www.hullstingrays.com/