NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays’ concluded a two game home stand Saturday night with a 2-0 whitewash of the visiting Gwinnett Gladiators. The win came 24 hours after the ‘Rays’ outlasted the Reading Royals 3-2 on Friday night.
Goaltender Ryan Zapolski continued his sparkling play picking up the wins in both contests. His goals-against-average is now the best in the ECHL at 1.58. He also carries a best in league 0.943 save percentage.
Friday night was a close contest with the ‘Rays jumping out to a second period 1-0 lead off the stick of captain Shawn Weller. He caught a rebound at 7:43 beating former South Carolina goalie Philipp Grubauer, who gave up three goals on just 15 shots in absorbing the loss. Reading is now the ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals after working with South Carolina over the past six seasons. The ‘Rays are now affiliated with the Boston Bruins.
The Weller goal came from just outside the crease. Kevin Baker and Chris Langkow were credited with assists on the opening goal. Royals’ forward Joel Champagne beat Zapolski low along the ice, less six minutes later, when he bested the ‘Rays’ goalie at the 13:02 mark. His setups came from Bryant Molle and Yannick Tifu.
That 1-1 tie stood up until South Carolina scored on the power play as defenseman Damon Kipp scored the first professional goal of his career. Kipp, out of British Columbia, played collegiately at the University of New Hampshire. His strike came at 18:46 as Matthew Pistilli and Hunter Bishop worked the puck back to the point for the shot. Bishop’s assist was the first of his two points on the night.
Defenseman Adam Comrie (David Marshall and Kirk MacDonald) silenced the crowd of 3,039 a bit when he tied the game at 2-2, with less than six minutes remaining in period three. The Stingray’s who were badly outshot managed only two of their 15 shots in the third period and while Reading launched nine of their 28 shots against Zapolski in the final stanza.
The aforementioned Hunter however, saved the evening with an unassisted game winning goal at the 16:45 mark. He picked up the puck on a breakaway and buried it past Grubauer for the 3-2 win.
On Saturday night Zapolski picked up his second straight number one star of the game with his 2-0 shutout win over the Gwinnett Gladiators. He swept aside 34 shots in besting his opponent in net, Mike Lee. The ‘Rays got the win, scoring twice on 20 shots against the Gwinnett net minder.
The ‘Rays used a first period power play from a Tyler Johnson wrister at 7:04 for the only goal Zapolski would need. Shaun Weller and Kevin Quick got the assists from the point.
South Carolina added the only other goal of the game at 13:08 of the same period. Forward Andrew Sackrison got his first goal of the season, an unassisted shorthanded strike. The 6-1 forward skated professionally in Sweden last season and hails from St Louis Park, Minnesota. He played four years at Minnesota State University at Mankato.
The rest of the game was almost all Zapolski. He made a number of excellent stops in stonewalling the Gladiators before the crowd of 2,434. Lee also had his moment as he stopped a Hunter Bishop penalty shot early on in the final period.
The two wins improved the ‘Rays’ record to 10-12-0-2 for 22 points. The six point weekend has the team in third place in the South Division of the ECHL Eastern Conference. They are just a point ahead of Florida and Orlando, but have played more games than their other division rivals. The ‘Rays skate again at home next Friday.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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