Stingrays: The Blueprint

Rick Strachan was the architect of a major heist in Cardiff Bay last night, designing a robbery that left the Devils dumbfounded.

What Strachan and the Stingrays stole of course, was the two points from the Devils by staging a third period comeback. Sure, it was a lucky escape, but the Rays are overdue in that department.

Most would see the crucial part of the game as the last five minutes. But that wasn't how the job was done. The Stingrays won the game in the opening forty minutes, despite being outscored 1-0 over two periods.

"What?" I hear you ask. Let me explain.

After Wes Jarvis gave the Devils an early lead, the Stingrays didn't deviate from their tried and tested game plan. Hence, the Blueprint.

“The whole game plan was to keep it close until the third period and to try and get a break and we did,” Strachan said in an interview with skysports.com.

“We don’t have enough guys to open it up and we have to play very conservatively.”

After going down early, most teams wouldn't wait so long before going all out to even the score. But the longer it stayed at 1-0, the more chance the Stingrays had. Strachan knows he can't allow his team to go down 2-0 on the road, but 1-0 is manageable. All it takes is a lucky break. And the Stingrays got one when Pavel Gomenyuk sent the puck towards net and it hit a skate and crept in. 1-1.

Credit the Rays for sticking to their guns. They dodged some bullets themselves as the Devils pinged shots off the iron, but they were still standing in the third period. Like a prizefighter weathering an early onslaught, the Rays stayed on their feet, dodging the knockout blow, knowing that they had a puncher's chance.

The Devils weren't firing on all cylinders and another team would have put the Rays to sleep. For the fans that stayed awake in what was a rather dull affair, they witnessed a comeback that had been on the cards for awhile.

“At the end of the day we didn’t play great and Cardiff were probably the better team, but we took the two chances we had,” Strachan said.

“(Gomenyuk) just threw the puck on net and it hit somebody and went in. Then we had the momentum and were feeling good and in the last few minutes they got a penalty and we scored on the powerplay.”

When Cardiff centreman Jay Latulippe was whistled in the final two minutes of regulation, the Stingrays perked up. No longer were they having to play on the back foot. Strachan knew it and seized the moment, calling a timeout with the game on the line at 1-1.

The Hull coach grabbed his wipe-away coaching board and motioned to the right wing, suggesting that the Rays move the puck back to the blueline after, hopefully, winning the draw. It proved to be the second time that he drew up a successful plan.

“Because I’m right handed I always draw on the right side of the board,” Strachan admitted.

“We have left handed players who work it on that side and I said: ‘Let’s not get fancy – let’s just get the puck from low to high and get it to the net and see what happens - hopefully one will go in.’"

Bingo.

Gomenyuk pinpointed a laser through Peter Aubry's five-hole. From where? You guessed it: The right wing blueline after the puck was sent back from down low.

The Devils had been well and truly rope-a-doped. Strachan had produced another blueprint for success. And it was even sweeter for Gomenyuk after he was berated by Cardiff defenceman Doug MacIver in the second period for a series of questionable hits.

With the Stingrays still missing Matt Reynolds, Stuart Kerr and Jamie Thompson, it won't work every night. But for the second straight Sunday, the Stingrays crept away with two points.

Job Done.