NORTH CHARLESTON, sc -The South Carolina Stingrays filled the North Charleston Coliseum and the back of the net Saturday night as a record crowd of 10,568 saw the Stingrays best the Mississippi Sea Wolves 6-2. The raucous crowd cheered six different home team goal scorers and goaltender Ian Vigier, who now has six wins in the seven games he has played on call-up to ECHL. Vigier is under contract to the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
The hundreds of people who were turned away after all tickets had been sold around 2PM Saturday afternoon missed a game where all SC players remained intensely focused for the entire sixty minutes. Coach Jared Bednar, who was extremely pleased with the team’s effort said in his post game comments, “there were no passengers in this game.” There also seems to be another phenomenon at work when Vigier plays in goal for the Rays.
So far, with the exception of his one loss the Stingrays rally around the round the young goaltender and really concentrate on defense when he is in net. Last night was no exception as he faced only three shots in period one and six in period two. Going into period three the Stingrays led 4-0 and Mississippi showed a spark in placing ten shots on net and scoring
Stingrays%27 Morin and Carbery on the fly
South Carolina started the scoring before the big crowd could get fully settled into their arena seats. Newly signed right wing Spencer Carbery, who was with the Fresno Falcons until they ceased operations, scored his second goal in five games with the Rays. His seventh goal of the season came on a rebound past losing goaltender Jeremy Duchesne at 3:23 of the opening period. Another newcomer, forward Mike Curry who recently joined the team from the Alaska Aces and all-star defenseman Johann Kroll got assists. In addition to scoring the first goal, Carbery also drew two majors for fighting on the night adding to the festivities.
The Rays struck again at 12:48 of period one on a beautiful combination of passes from defenseman Scott Romfro who hit forward Keith Johnson in the neutral zone with an outlet pass. Johnson, at full speed took the pass skated through two defensemen and as he neared the net slid the puck to rookie Michael Dubuc who was charging full speed towards the goal from the left wing. Duschene never had a chance as Dubuc scored his 21st goal of the year in full stride as he slammed the puck past Duschene.
Brad Farynuk ran the score to 3-0 on the first of three power play goals on the night for the Stingrays at 16:26. He scored after cheating in from the point to pick up a loose puck and poke it home. ECHL assist leader Travis Morin and rookie Maxime Lacroix got the assists on the last goal of period one.
Forward Curry added a goal to his first period assist at the 7:18 mark of period two extending the Ray’s lead to 4-0. The only goal of period two was the third goal of the year for Curry and was assisted by defensemen Brad Farynuk and Viktor Dovgan.
Dovgan played an excellent game and making the most of his extra ice time after Defenseman Sasha Pokulok left the game with an injury. Farynuk also played extremely well being named the game’s number one star and finishing with a goal, two assists and a number of solid hits on defense.
The Sea Wolves finally broke into the scoring column on a power play at 2:27 of the final period. Mike Berry scored his seventh goal of the season on a very strange shot. Berry launched the shot from the slot about ten feet from the net. He got off what appeared to be a major league baseball knuckleball. The puck much like a butterfly fluttered up and over the glove of goalie Vigier. The goal tender had the look of a baseball catcher as he watched the puck almost in slow motion somehow elude his outstretched glove.
Lacroix answered the Sea Wolves goal on a SC power play at 10:00. He recorded his 19th goal of the season adding to his earlier assist for a two-point night. Morin and Farynuk picked up the assists.
Mississippi managed a second goal 46 seconds later on a scramble in front of the net after Vigier made the initial stop. Ryan Menei collected his 5th goal on assists from Justin Coutu and Mark Roonen.
The Stingrays closed out the scoring when Scott Romfro tallied the Ray’s third power play goal at 15:31 with Coutu in the box for a roughing penalty. The puck was tipped by Romfro off of a Kroll blast from the point. Kroll got his second assist on the night and Morin got his third on the play.
Ian Vigier meanwhile, is scheduled to catch an early plane out of Charleston Sunday to Knoxville, TN to rejoin his SPHL team for what may be his third game in three days. He played Friday night for Columbus and flew into Charleston Saturday morning. Absent any new player movements he may be on a plane again for the Stingray’s mid day tilt Monday at Gwinnett.
Bednar indicated in pre game remarks for the local game broadcast that he felt the need to “fix the goalie situation by signing another full-time goalie.” Since regular goalies Bobby Goepfert and Michal Neuvirth are on AHL assignments and have been back and forth to the AHL and South Carolina multiple times, the Ray’s have scrambled. Luckily, Vigier has been available so far. Since both goal tenders appear to be on long-term assignments Bednar feels he must solidify his goaltending roster and is looking to sign someone fulltime.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.