Defence key for Stingrays

Hull followed up Saturday night’s 5-3 home defeat to Edinburgh Capitals in the league with a 7-4 loss in the Challenge Cup at Coventry Blaze on Sunday night.

As a result, player-coach Sylvain Cloutier said much work was needed on various aspects of Stingrays’ game, a home encounter with Belfast Giants on Sunday night.

“It is going to be a long week, we will be working on a lot of things,” said Cloutier.

“Our powerplay is not clicking, we are trying to be too fancy and wanting to score a highlight goal. Our penalty kill started well but we need to improve on that - we are back to square one.

“We are scoring at least three goals a game but we must be better defensively. You have to compete for 60 minutes to give yourself a chance and we need to get back to doing that.”

Cloutier’s team raced into a two-goal lead against the Capitals after only five minutes through Omar Pacha and Guillaume Doucet. But, after the visitors brought it back to 2-1 through Tomas Horna, Hull never really regained the momentum.

Two powerplay strikes by Curtis Leinweber left it 3-2 to Edinburgh after the second and, although Carl Lauzon drew Hull level early in the third, further strikes from Martin Cingel and Richard Hartmann – an empty net strike on the buzzer – secured both points.

On Sunday, Adam Henrich fired Blaze into the lead at 10.50 before they were then dealt a massive blow when goaltender Mike Zacharias had to be replaced by Adam Goss at 13.08. But Ryan Ginand doubled their advantage on the powerplay at 24.53 only for Jason Silverthorn to pull one back for Stingrays 63 seconds later - his 400th point in all Elite League competitions.

Doucet then made it 2-2 just before the halfway mark but Michael Henrich nudged Blaze back in front on the powerplay at 38.51 before centre Matt Davies tied it up at 3-3 moments before the of the second period with a shorthanded strike.

Blaze raced into a 5-3 lead courtesy of two further powerplay markers from Kenny Kallstrom within three minutes of the restart, but Hull came rolling back again, pulled to within one goal with Doucet’s second of the night at 46.03. Adam Henrich restored the home side’s two-goal cushion, though, at 47.18 and captain former Sheffield Steelers’ forward Ashley Tait rounded off the scoring at 53.05.

“It was a frustrating weekend,” added Cloutier. “We outshot Edinburgh nearly three-to-one, but their goalie made some massive saves and was outstanding, it was really disappointing to lose that one. We just have to move on and work hard this week.”