An emotional Sylvain Cloutier spoke of his pride at reaching 1,000 professional games after helping Excel Hull Stingrays mark the night with a 5-3 victory over Newcastle Vipers at Hull Arena.

Leading point-scorer Konstantin Kalmikov and Jason Silverthorn netted twice and Pavel Gomenyuk was also on target as Stingrays ended a three-game losing streak in the Elite League.

Cloutier, who also received the man of the match award, said: “I have enjoyed every minute. It’s always an honour to play hockey and to put that jersey on. Some guys take it for granted, it’s something you should never take for granted. I took a year off last year and I really missed it. If you can play hockey, play for as long as you can because once you are out of the game you really miss the people that are involved in it. The guys, the owners, the trainers – it’s a tight family and some people don’t understand that.

“It was an honour to play for Hull Stingrays and to put that jersey on for my 1,000th game. To do it with that group of guys was an honour and a pleasure, they are a great bunch and I couldn’t ask for a better group to play with.”