Stingrays mix it with duo touted for silverware

A 3-2 defeat in overtime at Cardiff Devils on Saturday night saw Omar Pacha’s team get off the mark for the season with a single point.

And despite losing their home opener against Braehead Clan 24 hours later, the main encouragement in that defeat will have been the East Yorkshire club’s ability to score plenty of goals – eventually going down to Ryan Finnerty’s team in an 8-6 thriller.

Given player-coach Sylvain Cloutier’s exit in the summer and the installation of a rookie player-coach in Pacha in his place – coupled with a complete overhaul of the playing roster – many people are predicting a difficult campaign ahead for the Stingrays.

That may still prove to be the case, but 27-year-old Pacha’s side showed ability to mix it with two teams who have been touted as candidates for silverware this season. It is early days but given Hull are yet to ice their full roster – defenceman CT Chartrain was injured and American forward Matt Larke is still to arrive – there are promising signs.

Twice they came back to within one goal of Braehead last night at Hull Arena, having gone 4-1 down after just 12 minutes and then finding themselves 7-4 adrift midway through the third.

Jordan Mayer impressed on his home debut, netting twice, with Sam Towner, Eric Galbraith, Zach Hervato and Matty Davies joining him on the scoresheet.

On Saturday, Hull were undone by a 61st-minute winner by Cardiff’s Jake Morrissette, after goals from Dominic Osman and Cory Tanaka had forced overtime.

Sheffield Steelers followed Hull into Cardiff Bay last night, in the Challenge Cup, and were on the right end of a five-goal game.

All the scoring came in a frenetic 10-minute spell in the second period, with Steelers coming back from 1-0 down through Mathieu Roy and Jason Hewitt.

Cardiff levelled, but Roy struck the game-winner at 31.36 to give Steelers’ coach Gerad Adams a winning return to the club he coached for over seven years before being jettisoned by then owner Paul Ragan last season.