NORTH CHARLESTON , S.C.- The South Carolina Stingrays’ struggles early this season continued over the past weekend. This time the difficulty came at home in a three game series against the Florida EverBlades. The ‘Rays delayed their home season opener from mid to late October, due to arena scheduling conflicts. Unfortunately, skating on home ice didn’t work out as desired. The ‘Rays lost two of three games, including what only can be described as an ugly over time loss on Sunday. After posting a win to open the three game series on Friday night (5-3), South Carolina lost back-to-back games on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. In Saturday’s game, the locals played extremely well, but could manage only one goal in a 2-1 loss. They outshot Florida 40 to 19 in the game, but couldn’t get much past EverBlades goalie Jaroslav Janus, who was named the number one star of the match. What was particularly upsetting was Sunday’s loss. In the afternoon matinee game, the Stingrays dominated play for 55 plus minutes, leading 3-0 with less than six minutes to play in the final period. They then watched, almost literally, as the EverBlades scored three times starting at the 5:37 mark, again at 1:49 and then tied the game at 3-3 with 1.4 seconds left in regulation. Florida’s regulation time goals came from Matthew Pistilli, Alexandre Imbeault and Nick Tarnasky. The EverBlades closed the game out with a power play goal in overtime, when Trent Campbell was sent off for boarding. Mitch Fadden’s slap shot from the point sent most of the crowd of 3,017 home unsure of what to think about the team’s sudden collapse in a game that had been headed for the win column. Newly acquired goaltender Shane Connelly who had some play-time for the Stingrays last season, took the loss Sunday. The Ray’s first two goals came from Tommy Goebel and Rob Ricci who each now have three goals on the season, while Trent Campbell provided the other score, earning his first strike of the young campaign. The ‘Rays record fell to 3-4-1 and 7 points. They are tied for eighth place in the conference and occupy last place in their division. Coach Cail MacLean in his post game remarks attributed the loss to the fact that “the team failed to play the full 60 minutes of hockey.” Fans were also extremely disappointed after the win Friday, an excellent, but losing effort on Saturday and strong performance Sunday until the roof caved in. One long-time season ticket holder told PHN, “It was unreal. Once the boys got up 3-0, they stopped skating and became a different hockey team. It was like someone flipped a switch.” Eight games do not make a season, especially if a team can bounce back from the bitterness of their last unusual loss. The ‘Rays will get a chance, but it will be on the road against Elmira (6-2-3-15 points) next Friday, followed by games Saturday and Sunday against Reading (4-5-0-8 points). They will face former teammate Michael Dubuc in Elmira. He is currently second in the ECHL in goals scored, with nine markers in 11 games. Going into the next weekend, Tommy Goebel leads the team in the scoring race with 7 points including three goals. Defensemen Josh Godfrey and forward Nikita Kashirsky are tied for the team lead in goals with four and each has earned six points. Jared DeMichiel has a record of 3-2 in goal with 3.15 goals against average and a .914 save percentage. Connelly who just came over from Elmira in a trade for future considerations, has appeared in two games for the ‘Rays and has a record for South Carolina of 0-1-1 coupled with a goals against average of 2.97 and a save percentage of .885. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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