NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – T he South Carolina Stingrays and Charlotte Checkers played a pivotal game in their best-of-seven series before a crowd of 2,015 and the Stingrays evened their playoff series at two games apiece with a convincing 4-1 win. The game was pivotal for South Carolina as they not only tied the series but they also played a second straight excellent game after they had played extremely poorly in Charlotte dropping the first two games. The first period featured a lot of end-to-end play and very few stoppages of play. It was not the lack of defense that caused the game to open up rather it was just great offensive playmaking and skating that required both Jeff Jakaitis, who started in goal for Charlotte and Jonathan Boutin for the Stingrays, to make tough saves. The first goal of the game came on a busted play at 13:24 of the opening period. The Checkers were down a man and Travis Morin attempted a pass to Keith Johnson who was lurking at the side of the net. Instead of going to Johnson the puck hit a Checkers player instead and the puck changed direction and slipped past Jakaitis. Johnson and Maxime Lacroix got assists on the power play strike. The Stingrays took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission when Lacroix got his third goal in the last two games two minutes later on a great pass from Morin. Zach Tarkir also got a point on the goal. Jakaitis appeared to be screened by his own defense on Lacroix’s wrist shot. Period two was scoreless until Matt Scherer cracked the Checkers defense at 14:32 after their goaltender had made a number of unbelievable stops. Scherer, who was a healthy scratch from the lineup in game three, created a turnover and then took advantage of it. He got the puck over to Nikita Kashirsky who sent it ahead to Spencer Carbery who gave it back to Scherer coming full speed towards the net who finished the play by blasting it home. Scherer struck again at 18:30 to send the ‘Rays up 4-0. His third goal of the playoffs closed out the scoring in the period. Scherer’s insertion back into the lineup was made possible by the activation of Johann Kroll. Activating Kroll, who played the point during his regular season stint with South Carolina, allowed coach Bednar to use Scherer in place of Mick Berge who was on the point in the previous games in this series. Charlotte Coach/GM Derek Wilkinson changed goalies to start the third period as Maxime Daigneault relieved Jakaitis. Daigneault who played for South Carolina during the 2004-05 season held the ‘Rays scoreless in the period. The Checkers broke into the scoring column at 10:25 of the final period on a goal by defenseman Ken Scuderi. Assists were credited to Marty Guerin who earned his with a beautiful pass and to Chris Capraro.
South Carolina was bolstered by sticking to their pre-game plan to stay out of the penalty box. “We like our chances at home,” said Stringrays coach Jared Bedbar. “Especially if we stay out of the box.” Going into the game the Stingrays were the most penalized team in the ECHL playoffs but were whistled for only four infractions in this contest and they killed each of them off. Meanwhile the Stingrays scored once on their own seven power play opportunities. Games five is scheduled for the North Charleston Coliseum Friday evening tomorrow with a 7:05 PM game start. The series will then shift to Charlotte for game six on Sunday. Notes: Both teams changed up their game rosters tonight. Bednar changed his game roster tonight by scratching defenseman Sasha Pokoluk and forwards Michael Dubuc and Mick Berge. Bednar inserted forwards Rob Ricci and Matt Scherer as well as defenseman Johann Kroll in their place. For Ricci it was his debut with South Carolina. Kroll returned after a two and a half week stay on the injured reserve list. Kroll was injured while on a long-term call-up with the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch but was added to the ‘Rays playoff roster when the Crunch failed to qualify for AHL post season play. Charlotte added Capraro and Peter Tsimikalis in place of Jeff Miles and Cedrick Bernier. Both Miles and Bernie were healthy scratches. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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