NORTH CHARLESTON , S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays’ rode the goaltending of Todd Ford and the offense of Maxime Lacroix and Nikita Kashirsky to a 3-1 win over the Greenville Road Warriors last night at the North Charleston Coliseum. The win halted a five game South Carolina winless streak, which gave a sparse crowd of 1,055 encouragement as the ‘Rays upped their season’s record to 4-7-1 (9 points). The encouragement came from the win and a dominating performance as the home team out shot the visitors 37-17, survived a harrowing one and a half minute two-man disadvantage in the third period, and killed off all four Greenville power plays. The ‘Rays cashed in on two of their three power play opportunities; Lacroix got the first power play marker and sandwiched in an even strength goal before Kashirsky got an empty netter in the last 16 seconds of the game with Greenville down a man. Ford, who joined the team from Hershey of the American Hockey League earlier in the day, got excellent help from the team’s defensive play and importantly was tremendous during the two-man Greenville advantage. It came with less than nine minutes remaining in the third period and the ‘Rays clinging to a 2-0 lead. Fans who watched a 3-0 lead disappear in the last five minutes of the last home game against Florida and then witnessed an overtime loss were understandably nervous. Lacroix opened the scoring at 4:35 of period one with Greenville’s Jimmy Kilpatrick in the box for holding. He jammed a rebound past losing goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris with Tommy Goebel and Bryan Schmidt picking up assists. The ‘Rays were able to hold the 1-0 lead, by stifling defense allowing just five shots on goal in the opening period. South Carolina ’s defense got even better in period two. Greenville managed just three shots on goal, but Grumet-Morris swept aside all 14 of the second period shots he faced from the ‘Rays. Thus the teams skated off for the second intermission with the home team holding on to the 1-0 lead. Lacroix scored his team leading seventh goal of the season on a strange play just over a minute and a half into the third period. Greenville defenseman Trevor Glass lost his edge fell and took several other players with him to the ice. The puck appeared to be lodged under the pile of players in the corner. Lacroix however managed to dig the puck out and walk it in from the side, almost uncontested and lofted a shot over the shoulder of Grumet-Morris. It appeared the Road Warriors expected a whistle and seemed to stop playing and the result was a 2-0 South Carolina lead. Ford’s chance to earn his win came with Lacroix in the box for boarding at the 11:02. He was quickly followed by defenseman Patrick Cullity, who drew a delay of game by shooting the puck over the glass in his defensive zone. This penalty at 11:32 gave the Road Warriors a full 90 seconds of two-man advantage. Many of Greenville’s nine shots in the last period came during this minute and a half but Ford stood his ground. In one sequence, he withstood multiple shots and then made a spectacular save, sliding across the goal mouth and stacking his pads to cut off a back door opportunity by forward Mark Voakes. His shutout was spoiled at 14:49 when Brendon Connolly took a setup pass from Brandon Wong to bring Greenville within striking distance with plenty of time left. The ‘Rays’ defense and Ford held on and with Greenville shorthanded and the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, Kashirsky rifled a shot from just outside the offensive zone blue line to seal the 3-1 win. Goebel got his third assist of the night on the empty netter while Cullity got the other assist on the score. Kashirsky’s strike was his fifth of the campaign. He and Goebel (3g-8a) are tied for the team scoring lead with 11 points each. South Carolina is at home this coming weekend, hosting Gwinnett on Friday and Saturday before closing out the weekend on November 21, with the Wheeling Nailers at the North Charleston Coliseum in an afternoon matinee. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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