NORTHCHARLESTON, sc – The South Carolina Stingrays, who will be in the playoffs for an ECHL record 15th time, meet one of their biggest rivals the Charlotte Checkers in the first round of the ECHL American Conference (South Division) playoffs. Action commences April 9 in Charlotte. The Stingrays finished second in the South Division ahead of Charlotte and have home-ice advantage in the seven game series. However, despite finishing ahead of the third place Checkers, the Stingrays will open the series on the road due to arena scheduling conflicts in both cities. Even this scheduling didn’t overcome all of the arena issues as Charlotte must play all of the games they host in this series in their practice facility. The Extreme Ice Center with a fan capacity of about 1,500 could add an element of surprise for the visiting team. During the regular season South Carolina won ten games and lost six in the games between the teams. The series featured two separate five game winning streaks first by South Carolina and then by Charlotte so either team has shown the past capability of running the table on the other. Of late, South Carolina has dominated but most of the games have been close and intensely contested. Momentum currently is on South Carolina’s side as they closed out the last ten games of the regular season with nine wins. Charlotte has struggled over their last ten games managing three wins and losing seven including two losses in shootouts. The old adage about the playoffs being a second season and given the past history and rivalry between the opponents, the regular season results are just that—regular season results and both teams start even on April 9th 2009. Offense:
Charlotte’s three leading scorers forwards Mike Bayrack, Jeff Miles and Matthew Ford each of whom were a big part of the Checkers offense. Bayrack has been particularly troublesome for the ‘Rays scoring frequently in games against them. He led the team in scoring with 60 points in 60 games. Miles weighed in with 43 points including 20 goals, while Ford appearing in just 28 games for the Checkers scored 38 points including 21 goals. He also had a robust plus/minus rating of +19 to lead the Checkers in that category. Forward Cedric Bernier who amassed 216 penalty minutes including 28 major penalties is likely to stir up the action even though he usually plays sparingly. South Carolina scored 249 goals this season with rookie wingers Michael Dubuc and Maxime Lacroix contributing 35 and 33 goals each and forward Keith Johnson scoring 21 times.& nbsp; However, clearly the ECHL’s first team center Travis Morin, with 88 points including a league leading 62 assists to match his 26 goals, is the heart of the offense. He has a plus minus rating of +37 best in the ECHL. Forward Spencer Carbery ranks right behind Bernier in penalty minutes with 194 and defenseman Nate Kiser with 174 minutes can also be counted on to mix it up. Defense:
Julien Brouillette is one of the defensive anchors for the Checkers. Playing in 70 of the Checkers’ 71 games he scored 11 goals and had 18 assists. Kenny Smith in his third year has also been a reliable performer playing in every game this year. Ken Scuderi and Michael Busto give the Checkers nice size on the blue line and veteran smarts. So uth Carolina is extremely deep on defense as evidenced by being among the top four clubs in the ECHL in fewest goals allowed giving up 187 goals in 71 games played. Rugged Nate Kiser one of the ‘Rays veterans on defense finished the season with a plus/minus record of +28, second in the league and first among defensemen. His 174 minutes in penalties also led that category for ECHL defensemen. Otherwise, the defensive corps is among the most talented group in the20league. Coach Jared Bednar will clearly have a tough time narrowing his playoff roster down depending on the possible return of several players still in AHL playoff races. Bednar’s defense options prove the point. The ‘Rays have some heavy experience in Kiser, Brad Farynuk, Patrick Weller, Zack Takir and Scott Romfro. Additionally, Johan Kroll who has been with Syracuse in the AHL much of the season, and Victor Dovgan, Josh Godfrey and Sasha Pokoluk on the injured reserve list may become available. Additionally, Bednar has received an excellent late season contribution from newcomer Lyon Messier and looking to next year brought in a recent college acquisition in David Grimson. As Bednar recently said “these are tough choices and a good problem to have.” Goaltending:
Jeff Jakaitis has carried a large part of the Charlotte goaltending duties ap pearing in 48 games and posting a goals against average of 2.73 and a save percentage of .923. He also finished number two in the ECHL in shutouts with five this season. His individual numbers are excellent ranking among the league leaders in several categories. The difficulty may be that the Checkers number two goalies haven’t played quite as well. When their numbers are included in the stats the Checkers have given up 224 goals and have a GAA of 3.16. The Stingrays posted an overall GAA of 2.63 giving up 187 goals in 71 games. The current tandem of Jonathan Boutin who has played 21 games and recently assigned James Rimer who has appeared in six games has been outstanding. Their performances have been inter changeable, a testimony to their skills and the overall defensive emphasis of the forwards and defensemen. Either goaltender seems capable of carrying the team throughout the playoffs and barring something unforeseen the Rays have the luxury of two very solid perfo rmers. Specialty Teams:
South Carolina was among the ECHL league leaders in power play percentage at 22.0 percent while Charlotte was struggling at 14.8 when the regular season ended. The two teams were virtually equal on the penalty kill with Charlotte being successful 84.7 percent of the time while South Carolina stopped opposing power plays 84.0 percent of the time. Importantly, the Rays also led the league in short-handed goals scoring 18 this past season. Charlotte scored 12 times while playing short-handed. Series Outlook:
Statistically the Stingrays have more firepower offensively, a solid veteran deep cadre on defense and are two deep in goal. The fact that Charlotte gets to host the starting initial games in an arena the Stingrays are not familiar with may also be an advantage for the Checkers. The Stingrays should prevail but the past history between these two teams is they play extraordinarily tough against each other so a surprise while unlikely is very possible. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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