Stingrays look to star on Giants’ big stage

Thursday’s trip to Northern Ireland provides Sylvain Cloutier’s team with their fourth game in six days as part of a hectic end-of-season schedule, caused in large part by starting their campaign a month late due to off-ice troubles last summer which saw the club temporarily close.

Second-placed Belfast go into the Odyssey Arena encounter as the Elite League’s form team, their 5-2 win at Hull Arena on Sunday night extending their winning streak to 10 games as they chase down leaders Sheffield Steelers with just over two weeks of the regular season left.

They have taken maximum points from their two previous games on home ice against Hull, although the Yorkshire club did take a point from a 5-4 overtime defeat there back in October, giving player-coach Cloutier confidence that his team can bounce back positively from Tuesday night’s 6-1 defeat at Cardiff Devils.

“It is a big arena and a nice rink to play in,” said Cloutier, who is likely to be without top-scorer Jereme Tendler once again, as well as defencemen Craig Mitchell and Aivars Gaisins and forwards Ryan Lake and Lee Esders.

“Last Saturday we played in Sheffield and the guys like playing in the big arenas.

“Any time you play in a big arena with a big crowd it gets you up. We like playing in Belfast and it should be a good game.

“We have taken points there so we know we can do it.”