Hull Stingrays scare Cardiff on Halloween

Both teams sit low in the Elite League standings with the Devils in 9th and the Stingrays in 7th, but the Challenge Cup standings are different, for the Devils at least.

Hull after tonight still are winless in the competition, bottom of group B while the Devils have seen their only real success of the year in that competition, second in the group.

But Hull came very close to ending their winless streak tonight in a fixture in Cardiff Bay.

The Devils came out strong in the game, gaining a lot of offensive pressure but struggled to beat Ben Bowns in the Stingrays net.

They did breakthrough though, close to the midway mark in the opening frame, a shot was rebounded and taken around the net for Andrew Conboy to score his third of the year on a bad angle shot to make it 1 - 0 with 7.41.

Before the goal was even announced to the fans, the Devils grabbed another one, this time through Max Birbraer at 8.02 to make it 2 - 0.

To try and gain some momentum, Bobby Chamberlain dropped the gloves with Rupert Quiney but neither fighter really gained the edge in an even tilt, but neither side gained much momentum from it.

Five minutes later it was 3 - 0, Matt Myers was on hand to score the Devils third of the night and third of the first period which gave the Devils a 3 - 0 lead after 20 minutes, outshooting Hull 15 - 9.

Hull came out a lot stronger in the second period, notable by their 11 shots on goal, and despite being a man down to open the second frame, Guillaume Doucet stormed down the wing, wristing his shot over the blocker of Dan LaCosta to pull one goal back for the Stingrays.

The Devils were able to reopen their three goal bracket through a powerplay strike from Ben Davies, who scored his impressive seventh of the season, but again the Stingrays replied and again it was Doucet with the goal, his even more impressive 11th of the year and second of the game.

With less than five minutes to go in the second, Mark Smith capitalised on a Ben Bowns mistake, the young Brit goalie came out to poke the puck away but the Devils regained possession, before Smith fired into the open net, making it 5 - 2.

But again, the Stingrays replied quickly, and once again it was Doucet completing his hat-trick to make it 5 - 3.

Coming out for the third, the Devils dominated again but Ben Bowns turned away all the came his way, completely blanking them in the final 20 minutes, giving Hull more of a chance of getting back in the game.

With just under 10 minutes remaining, Sylvain Cloutier found the scrambling puck in front of the Devils net to make it 5 - 4 with time to play, and then with just under 5 minutes remaining the impressive Guillaume Doucet netted his fourth of the game, and 13th of the year leveling the scores and forcing overtime.

No goals in the overtime period meant the teams were sent to a shootout.

When Guillaume Doucet shot first for the Stingrays, many predicted he'd score, everything he touched seemed to go in, and sure enough it did, with a cheeky little stop in front of goal before roofing the puck to make it 1 - 0 in the shootout.

Jake Morrisette and Andrew Conboy were unable to convert on the Devils first two chances, nor were Jason Silverthron and Jereme Tendler on the Stingrays second and third shots putting all the pressure on Chris Blight who fired a wrist shot to the back of the net to keep the shootout alive.

Doucet went again, this time trying to pull off a cheeky backhand move but he was stopped by the leg of Dan LaCosta, allowing Jake Morrisettes wrist shot to find the net and give the Devils a 6 - 5 win, surviving a Halloween scare by the Stingrays.

Stingrays Man of the Match - # 12 Guillaume Doucet (4 goals)

Devils Man of the Match - # 71 Andrew Lord (1 assists)

Elsewhere, the Sheffield Steelers emerged victorious over the Coventry Blaze with a 5 - 2 victory.

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