COACH Sylvain Cloutier saluted his Excel Hull Stingrays' players after their 3-2 victory over Newcastle at Hull Arena.

The win keeps Stingrays' hopes of avoiding a bottom-place finish still alive.

They now lie five points behind second-bottom Vipers with four games of the season remaining.

But Cloutier is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead, starting on Saturday in Sheffield before another home clash with Newcastle on Sunday.

He said: "It was a big win. The guys played really well for 60 minutes.

"You have to give them credit, they went out there and wanted to get the two points. It keeps up our chances of finishing seventh and now obviously Sunday's game means far more."

George Halkidis netted the opener on three minutes to give Stingrays a deserved lead, after being set up by Curtis Huppe.

The duo then linked up for a classy second on 11 minutes, finished with aplomb by Konstantin Kalmikov.

However, just before the interval Jason Tejchma struck on the powerplay for Vipers.

Within 15 seconds of the re-start Jason Silverthorn was quickest to pounce as the puck sat invitingly inches from the goal-line for 3-1.

With less than six minutes of the match left Mike Berry netted on the powerplay.

Vipers piled on the pressure, pulling Michel Robinson for the extra out-ice skater, but Stingrays clung on for victory.