Hull Stingrays 6 Newcastle Vipers 3

Mar 15 2010 by Peter Adams

NEWCASTLE Vipers’ goalie Michel Robinson made 43 saves but could not stop his side losing this vital engagement in the fight to avoid finishing the season bottom of the Elite League table.

A victory would have seen the Vipers secure seventh spot but they now instead face a fraught final weekend in which they must try to get something out of two difficult games.

The defeat for the Vipers means that the points difference between them and rivals Hull Stingrays has been reduced to three.

They now come up against two teams competing to claim the championship – the Belfast Giants, away on Saturday, and the Nottingham Panthers, at home on Sunday.

The Stingrays look on paper to have a much easier finish with home games against the Cardiff Devils and Sheffield Steelers.

Having beaten the Edinburgh Capitals 3-2 at Whitley Bay on Saturday, the Vipers went behind to an early goal scored by their former defenceman Pavel Gomenyuk (three mins) before going into the lead with strikes from Matic Kralj (16 and 24 mins).

But the Vipers were to concede the first of two shorthanded goals five minutes after Kralj’s second success, with Jeff Glowa hitting home the 30th minute equaliser.

Defenceman Jermaine Domish put the Vipers ahead for a second time (32 mins) with his fourth league goal of the season which was cancelled out two minutes later by Glowa.

A second powerplay aberration capitalised on by Stephen Burn (47 mins) set the Vipers on course for defeat.