Cloutier hails battling Stingrays

Player-coach Sylvain Cloutier had nothing but praise for his short-staffed Excel Hull Stingrays side as they registered a point from their weekend double-header in Scotland.

Stingrays were without injured trio Ryan Lake, Tristan Harper and Dmitry Rodin while Jack Watkins and Daniel Scott are on Great Britain Under-20 duty in Germany.

Cloutier’s side also travelled north of the border minus captain Josh Mizerek, who has been released.

It left Stingrays with just three defencemen and eight forwards and, after a 4-2 defeat to Braehead Clan, they claimed a point in a 7-6 loss after penalty shots to Edinburgh Capitals on Sunday night.

Cloutier said: “The guys have battled hard all weekend and at least we got a point out of it.

“We should have got something out of Braehead but just did not have any luck and [against Edinburgh] when you go to a shoot-out, it can go either way.

“We had three ‘D’ all weekend. Silver [Jason Silverthorn] and myself dropped back there to help but you cannot play 120 minutes of hockey with just three defencemen.

“It was exciting for the fans in Edinburgh. We have given up 10 goals this weekend but we want to be strong defensively, that is not the way we want to play.”