Vipers' late sting for Hull

Jan 12 2009 The Journal

CAPTAIN David Longstaff's second goal of the night and fourth of the weekend secured the Vipers a victory that had looked unlikely at Hull.

Played into space in centre ice by player-coach Rob Wilson, Longstaff advanced to between the face-off circles where he let go a wrist shot that beat ex-Viper goalie Curtis Cruickshank on his blocker side.

Overtime was just 28 seconds old and the misfiring Vipers had managed to contrive victory from being 3-1 in arrears. Wilson’s concerns about playing the Stingrays on their compact ice pad proved correct. Speaking after Saturday night’s encouraging 5-4 home win against the Manchester Phoenix, Wilson described the Hull Arena as “a really tough place to play in”. And so it proved as the Vipers struggled against second-from-bottom Stingrays, who took the lead on nine minutes through Slava Koulikov.

The goal was all that separated the two sides at the first break but the Vipers went further behind while they were operating a powerplay – Konstantin Kalmikov successfully breaking away to confront netminder Andrew Verner in a head-to-head encounter on 21 minutes. Man of the match against the Phoenix, Rob Rankin, put the Vipers on the scoreboard with a scrappy close-ranger during the same powerplay that had gone wrong.

Rankin’s 11th goal of the season gave the Vipers some hope but with four minutes of the period remaining, Jeff Glowa put the Stingrays two goals ahead again. The Vipers left it late to restore parity. Only six minutes of play remained when Longstaff pulled one back with a quick-fire wrist shot and only four were left when Verner created the equaliser with a chip that set Jeff Hutchins free.

The previous night, goals by Longstaff and Ed Courtenay put the Vipers briefly in the ascendancy after David Beauregard had put the Phoneix ahead with a fine finish after five minutes. The Vipers’ lead lasted 16 seconds as slip-shod defending led to Luke Fulghum netting the equaliser – between Longstaff and Fulghum’s goals there were only 45 seconds.

Courtenay successfully went one-on-one with netminder Stephen Murphy to put the Vipers ahead again in the first minute of the second period and then Hutchins made it 4-2 with a short handed score on 24 minutes.

Longstaff scored the fifth on 37 minutes, but with seconds of the period remaining the Vipers’ defence went AWOL again, allowing Bruce Mulherin in.

One of the best games seen this season at the Metro Radio Arena got tighter when Mulherin shot through Verner’s legs to make it 5-4 on 48 minutes.

Off the ice there was more good news for the Vipers this weekend. Long-time absent defenceman Burt Henderson is set to return to the UK this week and could be back in action on the blueline towards the end of the month according to Wilson. The player coach, though, added: “We are not going to rush him back.”

Henderson played just five games during September for the club. He sustained a wrist injury against the Belfast Giants.

STINGRAYS: Glowa, Kalmikov and Koulikov 1+0, Reynolds, Slonina and Wilson 0+1.

VIPERS: Longstaff 2+1, Hutchins and Rankin 1+0, Gouett, Lundin, Payette, Verner and Wilson 0+1.

VIPERS: Courtenay and Longstaff 2+0, Hutchins 1+2, Payette 0+2, Gouett, McAllister, Verner and Wilson 0+1.

PHOENIX: Mulherin 2+1, Beauregard and Fulghum 1+1, Dunn 0+2, Burnett, Hand and Murphy 0+1.