Stingrays' sights on play-off semi-finals
Stingrays collected three points out of four this weekend, beating Sheffield Steelers 3-2 after penalties, 24 hours after losing 5-4 to Newcastle, also on penalty shots.
It leaves them 10 points adrift of seven-placed Steelers with 11 games left, but Cloutier says the main goal now is the final four.
He said: "We're taking it one game at a time to the end of the season and trying to get as many points as we can and get ready for the Elite League play-offs.
"We want to get to the final four, that's our goal.
"We will be underdogs, but we've been underdogs all season.
"We just have to keep battling. We've got to play for 60 minutes if we want to give ourselves a chance against the big teams."
Out-shot 21-8 in the opening period, Stingrays fell behind to a seventh-minute Matt Hubbauer goal, but weathered the Sheffield storm to equalise through Adam Knight eight minutes later.
A solid defensive effort from both teams saw a scoreless second period, before a stunning finish by Konstantin Kalmikov put Stingrays ahead early in the third period.
However, Robert Farmer's tip-in inside the final eight minutes sent the game into overtime and then penalty shots.
Jeff Legue and Joe Talbot failed to score on their attempts, but Jon Zion netted his, equalising Jason Silverthorn's penalty shot.
Jeff Glowa put his attempt wide of the post.
It was left to Kalmikov to coolly slot home the winner.
On Saturday, Stingrays led 4-0 after 25 minutes through goals from Kalmikov (2), Cloutier and Glowa before Mike Berry pulled a goal back two minutes later for Newcastle.
It all went pear-shaped in the final nine minutes as Brent Hughes (2) and Ryan Mahrle sent the game into overtime with Hughes netting the penalty-shot winner.
"I would have taken three points out of four and been happy before the start of the weekend," said Cloutier.
"The guys battled hard on Saturday and you have to take the positive, we got a point, and we haven't been great on the road this season. Last night was a huge win against Sheffield.
"We needed it going into tomorrow night against Edinburgh because that's going to be a tough game in Scotland."
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