NORTH CHARLESTON , S.C.- The South Carolina Stingrays’ woes continue to mount as they went winless on a three game swing against ECHL Eastern Conference Atlantic Division competition this past weekend. Their winless streak now stands at five, after they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Reading Royals Sunday afternoon in Reading, Pa. This was their second straight loss to Reading, who hammered the ‘Rays Saturday night 5-3. South Carolina lost the opening game of the road trip in Elmira on Friday night also losing 5-3 in that contest. The ‘Rays find themselves in an unaccustomed position, as they have the worst record in the ECHL (3-7-1) 7 points. Of real concern, is the pattern of losses as the team has scored first in five games yet has a record on 1-3-1-in such games. Additionally they have not shown the ability to come from behind. They have lost all six games in which they trailed at the end of two periods. In Sunday’s game, the ‘Rays’ found themselves behind within the first three minutes of the game, when Matt Caruana beat losing goalie Shane Connelly at 2:27 into the period. This was Caruana’s tenth goal of the year with Chris Blight and Jared Ross assisting. Pierre Luc-O’Brien evened the score at 1-1 for the ‘Rays with Nikita Kashirsky and Josh Godfrey providing the helpers. O’Brien’s marker came on a power play at 4:10 of the stanza. Reading took a 2-1 lead at 17:07, off Ben Gordon’s third goal of the season. Todd Perry and Ryan Cruthers assisted on Gordon’s goal. South Carolina and Reading battled on even terms in the second period with neither team able to beat Connelly or the eventual winning goal tender for Reading Ben Scrivens. Connelly was especially strong shunting aside 11 shots in the period, while Scrivens stopped all eight of the shots he faced in the period. Forward Rob Ricci (6 goals) got his third goal of the weekend at 11:15 of the third period to tie the score 2-2 off setups by O’Brien and David de Kastrozza. The tie didn’t last long, as Cruthers picked up his second point in the game within three minutes at 14:12. Defenseman Ross and winger Olivier Labelle drew assists on Cruthers’ game winner and a 3-2 lead that stood up for the balance of the game. South Carolina plays at home Tuesday night, November 16 against Greenville, then hosts Gwinnett on Friday and Saturday, before closing out the weekend on November 21, with the Wheeling Nailers at the North Charleston Coliseum in a 4 p.m. afternoon matinee. The ‘Rays’ schedule now features nine of the next eleven games on home ice. Clearly if the ‘Rays are to get untracked, the opportunity to play at home for awhile may be the needed catalyst. Notes: Head Coach Cail MacLean missed the recent road trip as he and his spouse are expecting their first child. The team has signed forward Luke Popko who played four years at Boston University. He played in Sunday’s game and is an apparent replacement for Trent Campbell who was recalled to Bridgeport of the AHL. Nikita Kashirsky is the team’s leading scorer with four goals and six assists while Rob Ricci coming off his three goal weekend, now leads the team in goals with six markers. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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