Stingrays in need of a pick-me-up after heavy Capitals loss

WITH 20 matches remaining and games in hand on most of their rivals, there is still every chance Hull Stingrays will make the Elite League post-season.

But many more nights like the one in Edinburgh on Sunday night and Sylvain Cloutier’s team can forget all hope of extending their season beyond Sunday, March 24.

A third shoot-out loss in a row - making it eight from eight for the season - will have been hard enough to take at Braehead Clan on Saturday night. But what happened in the first period at Murrayfield Ice Arena 24 hours later was the stuff of nightmares.

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Hull found themselves 5-0 down within 13 minutes, three of the goals coming on the powerplay for hosts Edinburgh Capitals.

Whatever little hope was offered by Jereme Tendler’s short-handed reply at 12.55 was quickly extinguished by a sixth goal for Richard Hartmann’s team - again on the powerplay - just under two minutes later.

After winning the second period 1-0 - Tendler striking again at 26.25 - there was faint hope of a miraculous recovery in the third. But by the 46th minute it was game over after two goals from Rene Jarolin made it 8-2.

Hull managed three further goals as the game wound down, two from Jason Silverthorn and one from player-coach Cloutier. Sandwiched in-between was a ninth for Edinburgh from the stick of Jade Portwood, leaving a depressing final scoreline of 9-5.

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Cloutier didn’t try to sugar coat the situation after his team‘s fifth straight loss, aware that results needed to change soon before it was too late.

“The first period killed us,“ said Cloutier. “We were undisciplined, guys did not do their jobs and goals which should not go in went in.

“We had the better of them in the last two periods, but you cannot climb back from that. But we win as a team and we lose as a team and we need to regroup this week.

“We need guys to start stepping up - it is crunch time now. We need to keep plugging away and pick it up before it is too late.”

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Any positives to be taken from the weekend will have come from the previous evening in Braehead, despite the all-too-familiar outcome in the dreaded shoot-out.

Hull comfortably matched their hosts and looked to be on their way to a fourth away win of the season after that man Tendler - now the league’s joint-top goalscorer with 32 to his name - put them ahead with a short-handed strike in the 43rd minute.

But the Clan prevented Hull from keeping both points to themselves when they levelled through captain Ash Goldie with less than four minutes remaining.

A goalless overtime period heralded the dreaded penalty shots and Hull were ahead after the first round through Tendler.

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But Jade Galbraith levelled after Janis Ozolins missed his effort and, after Hull captain Kurtis Dulle also failed to score, former Steelers’ defenceman Steve Birnstill found a way past Ben Bowns to secure that vital extra point.

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