NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays’ Rays’ nine game win streak ended Friday night in a 3-1 loss to the Trenton Titans. However, the good news for ‘Rays fans is they immediately started a new steak by winning two in a row after that loss. They returned the favor Saturday 2-0 versus the Titans and then beat Elmira 4-3 in a shootout Sunday. All of the games were played at the North Charleston Coliseum. This past weekend’s action left the Rays (26-17-2) with 54 points in fifth place overall in the Eastern Conference of the ECHL.
Trenton captured the first of the two game set Friday before 2,878 fans with a third period power play goal and an empty net strike to provide the 3-1 margin of victory. The loss broke a season high nine game win streak for the Rays.
The two teams traded goals earlier as South Carolina forward Greg Stewart picked up an unassisted short-handed score with just over a minute left in the opening stanza. That 1-0 lead for South Carolina held up until Steve Silva tied the game 1-1 for Trenton with a nice wrist shot glove side on rookie net minder Philipp Grubauer. The teams headed into the third period tied 1-1.
The third period saw Trenton defenseman Ray DiLauro picked up the game winning goal on a power play at the 14:24 mark. An empty netter by Ryan Hayes at 19:14 provided insurance and the final 3-1 win for Trenton. Grubauer took the loss stopping 19 of the 21 shots he faced while Trenton goalie Dave Caruso made 33 saves of 34 shots to grab the win.
On Saturday night a pack the house promotion brought in 9,783 fans and most were delighted with a 2-0 shutout win in the effort by the ‘Rays. Both home team goalies contributed to the whitewash due to a second period injury to starter Daren Machesney. He was injured late in the period when a Trenton forward landed on him in a wild goal mouth scramble. The initial prognosis is that he suffered a groin pull and will be out awhile.
Machesney was protecting a 1-0 lead gained in the first period off the stick of Brett Flemming. Into the fray came Grubauer and he was able to keep the shutout intact stopping 11 shots over the remainder of the contest. Machesney had swept aside 21 shots before being forced to the trainer’s room. Pierre-Luc O’Brien scored his 19th of the season at the 19:14 mark to seal the 2-0 win please most of the big crowd in the building.
Sunday’s contest brought in the Elmira Jackals and trouble as the teams traded scores, a few blows and a lot of nastiness before the ‘Rays won in the shootout. It wasn’t easy as the home team dug themselves a 0-2 deficit before they could get going.
Jackals’ forwards Mario Larocque and a former Stingrays’ player Jordan Pietrus scored individual goals in the first and second periods to thrust Elmira into a 2-0 lead. Less than a minute later however South Carolina jumped back into the game. O’Brien racked up his 20th goal of the season off a pass from Maxime Lacroix with a second helper going to Trent Campbell. Nine minutes later at 12:04 Matt Scherer got the equalizer on a power play to tie the score 2-2. Johann Kroll and O’Brien got assists on the Scherer goal.
Lacroix got setups from Campbell and Flemming to give the ‘Rays a 3-2 lead but the crowd of 2,316 would get some free hockey as a result of a score by Elmira’s Kyle Reed at the 8:30 mark. Neither team could score in the last 11 plus minutes of regulation time and they then played a scoreless five minute overtime period.
Grubauer then nailed the win stopping three of the four Jackals shootout participants while Lacroix, recent American Hockey League returnee Matt Pope and O’Brien scored in the shootout for the ‘Rays and helping them ad a win to their new winning streak. Tim Pielmeier suffered the loss in goal for Elmira.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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