Cloutier ready for Hull Stingrays' cup battle against Sheffield Steelers

COACH Sylvain Cloutier says his players will be fired up to face Sheffield Steelers on Wednesday after collecting three points out of four against Edinburgh Capitals.

The Rapid Solicitors Stingrays followed up Saturday's 6-3 win with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out loss in the Scottish capital yesterday.

He said: "It's a big Challenge Cup game for us, considering we've already beaten Cardiff.

"Hopefully we can get something from Sheffield who are likely to be fired up after we knocked them out of the play-offs last season."

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On Saturday Stingrays led 2-0 with goals from Matty Davies and Dominic Osman, but Martin Cingel (2) levelled for 2-2 at the second break.

Janis Ozolins and Michal Dobron shared goals before Osman put Stingrays in front again with 11 minutes left.

In a bizarre last 10 minutes Capitals had outstanding netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky thrown out on a match penalty for kicking out at Cloutier who scored from a penalty shot and Osman netted his hat-trick goal.

With Hiadlovsky serving the first of his minimum five-match mandatory ban, Edinburgh gave Craig Holland his first start of the season last night.

An Ozolins double put Stingrays in front, but Frazer Goldie and Rene Jarolin's double had turned the tables by the half-hour.

Chris Sykes scored for 3-3 after 40 minutes and a goalless third period and overtime took it to a penalty shoot-out, with Dobron netting the winning shot.

"On Saturday we did have a spell of indiscipline which cost us momentum in the second period, but we picked it back up and found a way to win," said Cloutier.

"I'd rather have had two points from last night, but one is better than none."

For once Stingrays were at full strength, with Shane Lovdahl flying into Britain from America at 10.30am on Saturday to make his debut, having finally received his visa.

He impressed on defence, giving Stingrays a full three lines of players which paid dividends.

"It was nice to get an assist for the first goal," he said.

"I am still a little mixed up with the names but the other guys Janis and Matty made a great play.

"I enjoyed it. It was good to get my feet wet. I tried to make the easy pass and the guys gave me a lot of encouragement when I messed up a couple of times.

"It has been frustrating sitting at home and watching the games on the website as I had never been in that situation before."