Cardiff Devils Vs Hull Stingrays - Preview

28th Oct 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

A young couple out on a date parked up on an old country road to be alone, as they were running early for Cardiff Devils Vs. Hull Stingrays at home on Halloween in the Challenge Cup.

They were listening to Nation Radio and talking when suddenly the music was interrupted by a news bulletin. "A convicted murderer has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane. The man was mutilated in a car wreck following a high-speed chase and is missing his right hand. A temporary hook has been attached to his right arm, which will make him easier to identify. The criminal's name is ..."

The boy turned the radio off. He leaned over to his girlfriend, expecting that the frightening news flash would make her want too snuggle. Instead, she was so scared that she wouldn't even let him get close to her.

"I'm afraid," she said. "Let's get out of here."

The boy tried to convince her that they were in no danger and that they had plenty of time to make it to the game, but she refused to listen. He decided that maybe she didn't like him as he had thought, and was just using this as an excuse. The girl reached over and locked her door as the boy angrily started the car.

Just at that moment, they heard a thud on the passenger side of the car.

The boy slammed the car into drive and spun out onto the road. The girl screamed and held onto the boy as they sped off down the road. On the way back to the bay they both calmed down, but the girl still held on so tightly that the boy decided he was wrong about her after all. As they came closer and closer to the rink, he tried to think of a way to impress her.

They pulled up in the rink carpark, having paid the £2 “donation” for parking and the boy said, "I'll make sure it's safe first." He left the keys in the ignition but locked the door as he got out. He came around to her side to politely open her door, like a hero.

For a long time he just stood there, looking down at the door. At first the girl couldn't figure out what was wrong; then she realized that her door was still locked. She smiled and unlocked it. The boy still just stood there in the deep puddle of mud he’d parked in.

The girl looked puzzled and rolled down her window. Then she saw that the boy was looking down at the door handle. She slowly looked down herself.

Hanging from the door handle was a bloody stainless steel hook and then they paid £17.50 each plus booking fees to watch the Hull Stingrays !

This match will be the second meeting between the two clubs this season with the first meeting in the Challenge cup seeing the Devils take the win 3 – 4 away in Hull.

For an in-depth look at the Stingrays line up we’d suggest that you check out the fairly excellent Chasing the Dragons blog season preview series here http://chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/ten-teams-ten-days-4-hull-stingrays/

Stingrays have been playing short-benched since forward Derek Campbell picked up a 47-game ban for fighting off the ice, attempted eye gouging, kneeing and excessive force to the head. Under league rules clubs cannot ice a replacement import, but Stingrays are hoping to persuade the Elite  League's board to give them dispensation, due to the length of the ban.

Cloutier said: "Hopefully they'll let us bring in someone after say 10 games, but if it's more than 10, it's more. I am hopeful that at one point we will be able to. Once we know we can get the ball rolling.”

"I have started to look around and been doing some homework on some people so I am prepared.”

"I am stuck at the red light, I just need to get the yellow and green one to move forward."

Last Saturday saw the Stingrays pick up a welcome road win as they inflicted the slumping Capitals’ 10th loss on the bounce. 

An exciting start saw both sides score inside the opening two minutes. Only 74 seconds were on the clock when Carl Lauzon fired the Stingrays ahead on the powerplay but Capitals were on terms again 33 seconds later thanks to a shot from Peter Holecko.

Capitals then took the lead at 6.14 with a 5 on 3 powerplay strike from Michal Benedik but Stingrays tied the period in the latter stages when Omar Pacha fired in on the powerplay at 15.26.

The middle session saw only a single addition to the scoreboard but it was a third powerplay goal for Stingrays, scored at 27.17 from Silverthorn to see his side lead after forty minutes. Shortly after that Stingrays lost skipper Matt Suderman to a 10 minute then game misconduct for abuse.

That looked to be it as far as scoring was concerned with both sides giving little away at the back. Late on however Stingrays effectively made the game safe when Silverthorn scored his second and Stingrays fourth powerplay goal of the night at 56.18 and although after pulling goaltender Tomas Hiadlovsky Capitals pulled one back through Holecko with 34 seconds remaining it was too little too late and Stingrays claimed the valuable road points.

Final Score  Edinburgh Capitals 3 - 4 Hull Stingrays

Sunday saw the Stingrays complete the double against the Capitals.Having scored twice in Saturday night’s win in Edinburgh Jason Silverthorn was on the mark once again as he opened the scoring with a powerplay goal at 8.39. The Capitals restored equality at 11.13 with a strike from Jan Safar. With no further scoring the teams went in at the first break level.

The visitors took the lead as Michal Dobron found the net at 26.22. The Stingrays then went on to hit three without reply to take control of the game. It was two apiece with a strike from Jereme Tendler at 30.33.

Then two goals 77 seconds apart gave the home side control of the game.  Guillaume Doucet was on target at 36.57 and then Silverthorn with his second powerplay goal at 38.14.

There was only a solitary goal in the third period as Doucet netted his second at 55.09 to put the game out of the Capitals reach.

Final score Hull Stingrays 5 - 2 Edinburgh Capitals

Speaking after the weekend Hull’s Player-coach Sylvain Cloutier said: "It was a really important weekend for us. If we didn’t get anything we would have been at the bottom but by winning both we are only a few points off the top five.”

"We have been playing really well on the road in Scotland but it was good to get a home win. We have played better games at home and not got the results so it was good to find a way to win. We deserved our four-point weekend. Our goal was to leave Edinburgh behind us. We have been playing well for six weeks with no results but finally we are starting to get some results."

The ones to watch for the Stingrays this season look to be

Jereme Tendler       13 Goals  & 12 Assists
Jason Silverthorn    9 Goals & 11 Assists
Guillaume Doucet    9 Goals & 10 Assists

In nets the Stingrays have Ben Bowns who’s had a fairly unimpressive start to the season with a 89% Save percentage and a  3.78 Goals against average. 

No comment from us on the Devils squad this week as to be honest we can't work out whats going on, the team should however be at full strength.

We will be running the “ridiculously spooky and disgustingly bloody” Match Night Live service for this game, expect name calling, slurs and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

We’ll be updating you live from the Inferno “News desk” at the rink thanks to the great guys at Analysis Technologies. If you’d like to chip in with a comment or make a score prediction you can contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

Also don’t forget that on Sunday if you can't make it down and you don't want to miss any of the action and reading the game isn’t enough you can get the game on Devils live TV here http://www.cardiffdevils.com/ for a jolly reasonable £8