NORTH CARLESTON, SC – One of the better crowds of the season at the North Charleston Coliseum witnessed goal tender Ryan Zapolski record his second shutout of the weekend as he bested the Wheeling Nailers 3-0 Saturday night. The Stingrays improved their record to 15-16-4 (34 points) before 4,875 as Zapolski swept aside all 23 of the Nailers’ (13-11-6) 32 points, shots on goal.
The Saturday night shutout came on the heels of his 4-0 shutout win on Friday night on the road in Gwinnett. Zapolski, who has had one American Hockey League call up already this season, has an overall record of 12-5-0. Two of his wins came while he was a member of the Gladiators before his move to South Carolina. He currently leads the ECHL statistically with a 1.65 goals against average and 0.939 save percentage.
He was helped to the win by the offense of a more immediate newcomer another Ryan, as in Ryan Hayes. The forward who joined the team late last week in a trade from Trenton picked up a goal and an assist in the game. He has scored in both of his appearances with the ‘Rays.
The trade for Hayes is part of a roster shakeup as South Carolina has struggled most of the season except for when Zapolski has been in goal. They recently acquired two forwards Hayes and Robby Dee plus a defenseman in Derrick Foam. The defenseman moved over from Evansville and Dee came in from Bakersfield. Meanwhile, defenseman Kevin Baker was traded to Florida for future considerations.
On Saturday rookie Justin Courtnall started the scoring at the 14:34 mark of the second period on a setup by Tyler McNeely (9g-24a-33 points) the team’s leading scorer. The ‘Rays added insurance goals in the third period from Hayes (Andrew Cherniwchan and Chris Langkow) and Matthew Pistilli (Hayes). The Pistilli goal came on the power play.
The score could have been more lopsided but Wheeling net minder Peter Delmas who stopped 20 of 23 shots made a number of quality saves to stymie the home team’s offense until Courtnall broke through with his game winner.
Friday’s 4-0 win over Gwinnett was badly needed as the team was in the middle of a six game winless streak. In fact a description of the season can be wrapped up in the word streak. The low country hockey team has both a six game winning streak and the aforementioned losing streak this season. Dee got his first goal as a member of the ‘Rays and the game winner while Cherniwchan (5g-6a), Hayes (5g-4a) and Hunter Bishop closed out the scoring with his 15th goal of the season. Bishop has 31 points in 32 appearances in the campaign.
Tyler Puddifant, a full time Southern Professional Hockey League on ice official who is supplementing the ECHL officiating staff this season had a quiet night as he called seven minor penalties. South Carolina went 1-5 on the power play while Wheeling failed to score during their two power play advantages.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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