NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays (17-16-2) won their second straight road game in Toledo 3-2 over the Walleye (13-18-10) in a Sunday afternoon matinee. It was their second straight win on a seven game road trip after they won Saturday evening in Wheeling 3-1. They had dropped the first game on the sojourn Friday night 3-2 to the Elmira Jackals. That loss was the fifth in a row before South Carolina righted the ship a bit on Saturday and Sunday.
In Sunday’s match, Pierre-Luc O’Brien scored twice with his third period goal at 3:36 being the game winner for the victory hungry ‘Rays. His first goal came in the second period at the 7:32 mark and tied the score 2-2. He now has 16 goals on the season. He leads the team in goals and in overall scoring with 25 points. The dynamic forward had goals in all three games this past weekend.
Derek Keller assisted on O’Brien’s tying goal while Maxime Lacroix picked up the lone assist on the game winner. Earlier in the first period forward David de Kastrozza got helpers from Chris Doyle and Nick Tabisz to tie the score at 1-1 after Toledo had taken the lead with a first period power play.
Toledo as mentioned struck first with a power play goal at 4:28 of the opening period. Andrej Nestrasil flicked a rebound past ‘Rays’ goal tender Philipp Grubauer who won his 12th game of the season stopping 27 of 29 shots. That 1-0 lead held up until the De Kastrozza strike which came at 10:25.
Toledo regained the lead about a minute later however. Joey Ryan notched his eight of the season from Paul Zanette and Phil Rauch. That lead held up until O’Brien started his heroics with his second period strike. Rob Nolan took the loss in goal for Toledo stopping 23 of the 26 shots he faced before a crowd of 4,144 at the Huntington Center.
Grubauer was also hot Saturday night as he back stopped the Rays to a 3-1 victory in Wheeling West Virginia over the Nailers. He stopped 28 shots as the ‘Rays scored three third period goals to claim the win. Trent Campbell (1g-1a) and O’Brien (1g-1a) led the offense with Chris Doyle chipping in a single marker in the come from behind win.
Mikael Bedard got assists from Kyle Bushee and Christiaan Minella to give the Nailers an initial 1-0 lead in the second period after the teams went scoreless in the first 20 minutes. Peter Delmas played in goal for the Nailers making 23 saves in the loss. Neither team could score on their power play advantage as the Rays went 0-3 and the Nailers failed to score on four chances. The teams drew 3,931 fans to the tilt.
On Friday night, the Elmira Jackals before 3,743 at First Arena overcame 1-0 a first period Stingrays’ lead with three goals in the third period to claim the win. Daren Machesney suffered the loss in net. South Carolina got goals from defenseman Johann Kroll and O’Brien. Dustin Gazley, Mario Larocque and Louie Caprusso scored for Elmira. Caprusso’s game winner came at 17:41 of the third period. It stymied a South Carolina comeback as they had tied the game at 13:55 on Obrien’s 13th of the season.
The Stingrays continue the road trip with games in Kalamazoo on the January, 11 followed by games Friday night the 13th in Trenton and Saturday in Elmira. They then closeout the marathon trip with a Monday MLK day matinee in Reading before heading home.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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