NORTH CHARLESTON, SC- The South Carolina Stingrays started slowly this season even though they played their first five games of the young season at home. They opened the season with a sloppy win against Wheeling, were thoroughly outplayed by Charlotte the next night and then dropped two of three against the Gwinnett Gladiators.
Importantly, they just didnât look right even in the two wins and of concern to local fans faced a huge test, a three game road series against their most intense rival, the Florida EverBlades. While the offense was off to a good start, defensively and in goal the âRays were playing below their lineupâs overall potential.
However, October ended on a high note as the âRays took two out of three games from the âBlades, winning the last two games after dropping the opener against their bitter ECHL rival. The two wins gave the âRays a record of 4-2-1-1 and 10 points for the month.
While the âRays two wins in Florida were welcome, as importantly the defense and goaltending both seemed to come alive in the series against the EverBlades who once again are loaded with offensive talent. Many ECHL pundits have once again picked the âBlades as the best team on paper going into the season. All three games in Florida were settled by identical scores of 3-2. Ironically, the game the âRays lost may have been their best overall effort of the three games they played in the series.
The defense which played a major role in last seasonsâ Kelly Cup win struggled in the first five games of the season. It wasnât just the number of shots and goals allowed or the losses. Rather, the team was having real problems in simply getting the puck out of their own zone, was and is still struggling on the power play and to most observers was simply out of sync. To top it off both goaltenders, veteran Todd Ford and rookie Braden Holtby didnât look sharp.
Fortunately, against Florida, the defense stepped up and veteran goal tender Todd Ford flashed the talent that caused the âRays to sign him after he spent last season in Victoria with the Salmon Kings. The result was a great end to October and an upbeat start of a very tough road trip.
Collectively, through eight games the goaltenders have now posted 3.33 goals against average and a 0.898 save percentage. Ford leads the tandem with a record of 3-1-1, a goals against average of 3.16 and a .903 save percentage. Holtby, who has been called up twice already this season by the Hershey Bears, has appeared in three games posting a record of 1-1-1 with a goals against average of 3.60 and a save percentage of .898.
Currently, second year center Nikita Kashirsky is off to the kind of start his play in 21 playoff games of last season predicted. The Moscow native who joined the team last year after his collegiate career ended was a major force in last season’s playoffs scoring 18 points including six goals. He is the team leader in goals with five and co-leader in scoring with eight points while playing in all eight games. He is also the ECHL leader in total shots on goal perhaps emulating his more famous Russian friend Alex Ovechkin the perennial NHL leader in shots on goal. Rookie Rob Ricci ranks second in goals for the team having scored four times in eight games.
Forward Keith Johnson also has eight points (3g,5a) while returning veterans Trent Campbell (3g,4a) and Matt Scherer (2g,5a) have contributed seven points each. Lastly recent addition AHL veteran Matt Fornataro has contributed three goals in the five games he has played since joining the team. Defenseman Zack Takir leads the defense in scoring with six assists. This also places him among the league leaders in points among defensemen. Michael Dubuc, who led the team in goals last year, has split is time with the Hershey Bears and âRays and has scored two goals in his six games.
Newcomers Zach Jones, Dylan Yeo and Joe Finley have played well on defense complimenting the veteran Takir who is one of the team leaders in plus/minus with a plus three. Finley who leads the team in penalty minutes also has a plus three plus/minus total. Finley who stands 6â7â and weighs in around 245 pounds seems to be drawing some challengers for fights as he goes through his initial round of games as a rookie.
Eight games at the start of the season are not enough of a sample to draw major conclusions but two areas of needed improvement stand out. First, the Stingraysââ power play is an almost non-existent 9.4 percent. The âRays have scored only three times on 32 power play opportunities. Two of the power play goals came in one game. For example they went a woeful zero for 10 in their 3-1 loss against Charlotte in the second game of the season. More recently they failed to score on any of their eight opportunities against the EverBlades in the three games. The power play which was a major strength of last seasonâs team has been an area of concentration in practice but so far without any turn around.
Secondly, the team is in the bottom six in the league in the number of shots allowed giving up an average of 33.38 shots on goal per game. This has of course contributed to the goal tender struggles. The team is faring better on the penalty kill ranking seventh in the league killing off 85.4 % of the shorthanded situations they have faced.
The Stingrays play next in Wheeling against the Nailers on Friday November 6, 2009. They then travel to Reading for two games Saturday and Sunday, on to Elmira and Trenton for back to back mid week games before closing out the road trip the 13th in Gwinnett. They return home Saturday November 14 against Charlotte. This intense stretch of seven games in nine days is a test that should provide Coach Cail Maclean with a major period of time to establish team chemistry as well as test the mental and physical capacity of the defending ECHL champions.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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