Mobilx Newcastle Vipers 5 Hull Stingrays 4

Feb 22 2010 The Journal

FORWARD Brent Hughes scored twice as Newcastle Vipers overturned a 1-4 deficit in the last eight minutes before deftly netting the game-winning penalty shot.

The Vipers’ nippy No 9 opened his account with a low shot netminder Martin Raitums should have saved to make it 2-4 during a powerplay on 51 minutes.

With three minutes and 20 seconds left the Vipers had looked likely to lose, but Hughes capitalised on a mistake to net the equaliser with another ice skimming effort that beat Raitums on his right.

Then, taking the second penalty shot in the game deciding shoot out, Hughes cooly sent the puck high into the roof of the net over Raitums’ right shoulder as the netminder committed himself to saving another possible low shot.

The Vipers’ second unlikely comeback victory in four days was sealed when netminder Michel Robinson got behind Jason Silverthorn’s attempt.

Afterwards the modest Hughes praised his teammates. “We were lucky to win tonight, “ he said. “Hull came out strongly and we were a little flat. We started to pick up the pace towards the end of the second and we knew that if we continued that we would have a shot in the third.

“The second goal I was just in the right place at the right time, the puck just trickled out. It was great forechecking from our forwards, putting pressure on, creating a turnover – what Willy (coach Rob Wilson) wants and it worked. We showed a lot of character.”

Four minutes after the first face off Konstantin Kalmikov successfully concluded a fine passing move with a shot that travelled through Robinson’s legs, and the lead was doubled when Slyvain Cloutier pounced a Robinson mistake.

On a Vipers’ powerplay Konstantin successfully broke away to go one on one with Robinson (23 mins) after defenceman Ryan Mahrle turned over possession by the boards close to the home bench.

Just over a minute later during the Vipers’ third powerplay, Jeff Glowa beat Robinson to make it 0-4. Mike Berry struck back for the Vipers before Hughes made it 2-4, then during a scramble for the puck, Mahrle made up for his earlier mistake by firing home before Hughes went on to eventually secure a Vipers win.

VIPERS: Hughes 2+0, Mahrle 1+2, Berry 1+0, Kralj and Tejchma 0+2, Campbell and Salem 0+1.

STINGRAYS: Kalmikov 2+0, Glowa 1+2, Cloutier 1+0, Gomenyuk, Halkidis, C. Mitchell and L. Mitchell 0+1.