Devils@ Stingrays - Match Preview - 15/09/13

10th Sep 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Sunday night see’s the Devils make the trip to the most versatile venue in the country and the home of Chip Spice the Hull arena to take on the Hull Stingrays.

Despite finishing last over all in the league the Ray’s seemed to have the Devils number last season running away with the series 4 -2.

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/
The Ray’s got off to a shaky start in a similar fashion to the Devils winning one and losing one over the opening weekend staring off Saturday away to the Panthers in a Challenge cup game where they took more than a bit of a mauling to Coach Corey’s kitty’s.

Panthers got themselves off to a perfect start as Robert Lachowicz put them in front at 6.17. The Panthers then doubled their lead with a strike from Brandon Benedict at 13.20. The Stingrays managed to pull one back from the stick of Jereme Tendler at 14.21. Panthers regained their two goal advantage just over a minute later with a goal from Bob Wren at 15.52.

A second goal from Tendler at 23.39 got the Stingrays to within one and then at 28.31 the game was all square as Jason Silverthorn netted. Having got themselves back on level terms the visitors found themselves behind once again as Wren scored his second of the game at 33.10. Going into the third period the hosts were in front by the odd goal in seven.

Panthers struck early in the third period as Chris Capraro netted on the powerplay at 41.22. A further two goals in just over a minute saw the Panthers increase their lead as Lachowicz with his second of the game at 44.20 and then Chris Murray at 45.32 put the three in front.

The game was ended as a contest as Matt Francis at 51.29 and then a strike from Lachowicz at 53.15 to complete his hat trick and end the scoring.

Final Score Nottingham Panthers 9 – 3 Hull Stingrays

Speaking after this game in the press Coach Sylvain Cloutier had this to say: "Panthers are the top team in the country and stacked with talent and we did well for two periods but we got tired in the third and they took over.

"We showed an offensive threat in the first two periods and ran them close but we are a couple of bodies light and we ran out of steam in the third."

Sunday saw the Stingrays in better form at home as they  got their home campaign off to the perfect start with an important win over the Clan, who themselves lost their second game of the inaugural weekend.

The Stingray’s special teams played a key part in this win with two powerplay goals and a couple of short handers thrown in for good measure, with the visitors scoring only once form no fewer than ten powerplay opportunities.

A good open first period had plenty of chances at either end but only one goal, that coming the way of the home side when James Chilcott scored his first ever Elite League goal at 10.48.

The second session saw a purple patch of the wrong kind for Clan as Stingrays hit a powerplay goal and two short handers in the space of five minutes to take complete control. Jereme Tendler on the powerplay at 28.28 made it 2-0 and then on the same penalty against player/coach Sylvain Cloutier for delay of game both Guillaume Doucet 32.02 and Derek Campbell 32.59 stunned the visitors by extending their sides lead to 4-0.

An early powerplay goal for Clan by Kevin Bergin at 41.08 gave the visitors some hope of a comeback but Stingrays were in no mood to give up what they had and the game was killed when Doucet scored on the powerplay at 48.14 for 5-1.

Clan did have the last say when Matt Towe netted with 20 seconds remaining but this was no more than scant consolation for a well beaten side at this point.

Final score Hull Stingrays 5 – 2 Braehead Clan

With the Sunday being a bit of a goal festival for them Hull currently have four players in the top ten scorers with Jereme Tendler, Jason Silverthorn, Guillaume Doucet and Derek Campbell all making great starts for them. These are clearly the guys to watch for them for my money.

Hull have no games prior to this one so should be at full strength for the game on Sunday. While the Devils face the Clan on Saturday and have a question mark hanging over the fitness of starting Net Minder Dan LaCosta (at the time of writing).
We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” 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

If you’re making the trip up to Hull and you'd like to help out by texting updates (we’d be happy to hear from you) or if you’d like to chip in with a comment or prediction on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.