Newcastle Vipers 3, Hull Stingrays 1

Mar 10 2008 The Journal

TWO powerplay goals and a short-handed empty netter put the smile back on the Vipers faces after a run of five defeats.

Beaten 5-2 away on Saturday by the Sheffield Steelers, the Vipers took a powerplay lead as Ben Storey beat netminder Ladislav Kudrna.

Jeff Hutchins shot low and hard to make it 2-0 on the Vipers’ third powerplay of the game. And, awarded a powerplay in the 59th minute, the Stingrays withdrew Kudrna for a six-on-four skater gamble which failed when Colin Shields shot home into the unguarded net.

Vipers netminder Ryan MacDonald was set for his fourth shut-out of the season but he was unluckily beaten by the last attempt on his goal.

With seven seconds left on the clock, Luke Boothroyd’s hopeful chip struck Shaun Johnson’s stick – the netminder had saved 34 shots prior to that.

At the House of Steel on Saturday, Shields’ fifth-minute goal was cancelled out by Dan Tessier. The Steelers then established a two-goal lead with 15th and 16th minute strikes by Jonathan Phillips and Joey Talbot.

With 40 seconds of the period remaining Hutchins made it 3-2. Shields then missed a good opportunity to level the scores and Tessier was to hit his second of the night on 31 minutes. And Tessier hit his hat-trick marker into an empty net in the final minute.

VIPERS: Shields 1+1, Hutchins and Storey 1+0, Jackson and Longstaff 9+2.

STINGRAYS: Boothroyd 1+0, Esders and Lee 0+1.

STEELERS: Tessier 3+1, Phillips 1+1, Talbot 1+0, Sarich 0+2, Dagenis, Finnerty, Sheppard and Tait 0+1.

VIPERS: Hutchins and Shields 1+0, D Campbell, Jackson, Johnson and Longstaff 0+1.