Konstantin Kalmikov scored a spectacular winner against Basingstoke

Hull Stingrays recorded a three-point weekend to climb off the bottom of the Elite League table.

They picked up a point at leaders Sheffield despite going behind, before coming from behind to win 4-3 against Basingstoke at the Hull Arena.

Rays coach Rich Strachan told BBC Radio Humberside: "It was a massive weekend for us and huge for our confidence.

"We have been playing decent hockey and not getting the results and I have never seen the boys that happy."

The Stingrays trailed 3-1 at home to Basingstoke with a quarter of an hour left but staged a grandstand finish to claim the win with just 11 seconds to go when Konstantin Kalmikov hammered in a brilliant cross-shot high into the Bison net.

Goals form Shaun Thompson, Trevor Reid and Greg Chambers put the Hampshire side in cruise control with only Slava Koulikov's reply counting for Hull.

They could have crumbled but they battled and worked hard and we got a vital point Hull Stingrays coach Rick Strachan on the Sheffield overtime defeat

But that all changed when Jeff Glowa and Matt Reynolds netted powerplay goals inside 50 seconds of each other to level the game in the 44th minute.

Overtime loomed but Ukrainian Kalmikov had other ideas to secure the victory for his side.

Saturday night in Sheffield proved to be a noteworthy for the Stingrays when they registered their first ever point in South Yorkshire as a top-flight team despite going down 4-3 as the Steelers claimed the extra point thanks to an overtime winner from Jeff Legue.

It had looked grim for Strachan's team when they went three down following goals from Brad Cruikshank, Legue and Jason Hewitt just past the midpoint, as the home side scored quick-fire goals inside 95 seconds after a blank first period.

However, powerplay goals from Matt Reynolds and Pavel Gomenyuk saw the Rays reduce the margin to a single goal before the second interval buzzer. and the comeback was complete when Reynolds claimed the leveller after 47 minutes to send the game into overtime.

The players' attitude was something special according to Strachan.

He said: "At 2-0 I called a time-out and straight from the face-off they scored so I guess that didn't work. But the guys showed character. They could have crumbled but they battled and worked hard and we got a vital point."

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