Domenic Parlatore - opened the scoring for Flames

Flames defeat Hull Stingrays 8-3 in Findus Cup play

The Guildford Flames had a rare Saturday night off last weekend before Sunday’s match when the Hull Stingrays rolled into Spectrum and suffered an 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Flames in Findus Cup action. The day off cost the Flames first place as the Bracknell Bees moved into top spot in the Findus Cup, but the Flames will have an extra game later on to make up the ground. Sunday night against the Hull Stingrays saw a relatively quiet first several minutes in the match. Plenty of shots on goal in the first frame as the Flames outshot their opponents by a margin of 18-8, but no scoring until more than halfway through the period when Domenic Parlatore buried a chance to give the home side a 1-0 lead. The Flames opened up a 2-0 lead at 16:09 when Ryan Vince scored on Hull netminder Pasi Raitanen on a play set up by Milos Melicherik and Paul Dixon. That goal was a shorthanded strike while Flames defenceman Peter Michnac served a two minute roughing minor penalty. That ended the scoring as the clubs headed to the interval with the visiting Stingrays trailing by a pair of goals.

The ice was barely dry in period two before the Flames opened a 3-0 lead when Ryan Vince scored his second of the night at 21:08. Just over two minutes later Slovakian defenceman Marian Smerciak increased the margin to four goals with a goal of his own assisted by Ryan Vince and Domenic Parlatore. Stingrays coach Rick Strachan had seen enough of netminder Pasi Raitanen and replaced him with Sam Roberts. That seemed to spark the Stingrays as both clubs played an end-to-end game for the remainder of the period with the Flames holding an 11-10 shots on goal edge. The visiting side finally solved Flames netminder Stevie Lyle at 36:53 when Andrei Nikolaev scored to cut the Flames lead to 4-1 and finish the second period of play. The period saw the clubs trading a barrage of penalties, 26 minutes to the Flames and 14 to the Stingrays.

Period three opened quickly when Jozef Kohut fired a bullet past Sam Roberts, thanks to a great pass by Rastislav Palov to give the home side a 5-1 margin. At 45:53 the Flames struck again with a goal by Ryan Vince, completing his hat trick. The scoring barrage continued at 53:45 and 54:03 when Marian Smerciak and Rastislav Palov scored to give the Flames an enormous 8-1 lead. The visiting side showed a bit of life, however, as Evgeny Alipov and Mike Bowman replied for the Stingrays on Flames netminder Joe Dollin who replaced Stevie Lyle midway through the final period. The Flames finished with an 8-3 win and a still unbeaten record in Findus Cup play.

Flames Head Coach Stan Marple commented:
“It was a great effort by the guys. We seem to be gaining confidence with each match we play. We couldn’t have asked for a better first half of the Findus Cup and we are looking forward to the remaining Findus Cup matches and our chances of advancing to the semi finals in November.”