HULL, UK – Ukrainian forward Konstantin Kalmikov believes Excel Hull Stingrays should take encouragement from their last visit to the National Ice Centre as they prepare to face Nottingham Panthers tonight.
Stingrays led 2-0 going into the third period before Panthers hit back to win 3-2 after overtime in October. They will be without player-coach Sylvain Cloutier (knee) and Craig Mitchell and Matty Davies (Great Britain U20 duty) while James Sanford was released on Thursday. But Pavel Gomenyuk returns from a broken rib.
Kalmikov, who played for Panthers during the 2004/05 campaign, said: “It is not going to be easy there but we are at the stage now where we need to start picking up points every game, we can`t let it slide any more.
“We will have to work hard because it is a tough building to play in. But we played well there last time and should have won so we will go there looking to get the win. But we have to be ready.”
As stated above, young Matt Davies is away with the GB U-20’s along with team mate Craig Mitchell and Davies is confident of what the national side needs to achieve:
“It has to be gold, nothing else but gold. We have to get out of this group. We are a Division One nation but we have yo-yo’d for the last couple of years. We have a similar group this year and I believe we can win every game and get the gold.”
GB will open their Division Two Group A campaign in Debrecen against China on Sunday before facing Korea, Spain, Mexico and then the hosts, Hungary, on the final day on December 19.
Davies and Mitchell, who will miss the next three Elite League fixtures, were part of the U20s side which gained a silver medal in Spain last year and the side will be looking to go one better this time around.
Contact the author Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com
The press releases used are with the kind permission of the Excel Hull Stingrays.
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