JOHNS ISLAND , SC-It will be déjà vu, but not all over again, as the South Carolina Stingrays and the Cincinnati Cyclones meet in the ECHL American Conference finals for the second consecutive year.
The difference this year compared to last is that the Stingrays will have the home ice advantage and with the ECHL being a developmental league, the rosters for both teams are vastly different. Still, South Carolina will be looking to avenge their ouster last year by the Cyclones, the ECHL’s defending Kelley Cup Champions.
Cincinnati should come into the best-of-seven games series rested after an impressive four game sweep of the Elmira Jackals in the North Division finals. Meanwhile South Carolina upset their bitter rival the Florida Everblades in six games.
The series win against Florida eliminated the league’s regular season champion as the Everblades had the best regular season record in the ECHL. It was a tough series as three of the games were decided in overtime, and all six games were decided by one-goal margins.
Cincinnati and South Carolina did not face each other in the regular season. South Carolina earned home ice advantage in this series based on a slightly better regular season record. The ‘Rays had a regular season record of 42-23-6 while the Cyclones posted a record of 41-26-5. Both teams have recorded eight playoff wins.
South Carolina Injury Update
The question for low country fans is whether the ‘Rays can overcome the physical and mental strain the hard-fought win over Florida extracted. For example, Travis Morin the ‘Rays’ regular season scoring leader and veteran defenseman Nate Kiser were injured in the Florida series. Additionally, defenseman Josh Godfrey who anchored one point on the power play for a lot of the regular season but was injured while playing in the AHL has yet to play in any of the playoff games to date.
Morin, who suffered a wrist injury in Game 1, did not dress for the next four games but did return for Game 6. Kiser has yet to return to the lineup after he suffered what appeared to be a concussion early on in Game 3. Local information indicates that both Kiser and Godfrey are ready to play against Cincinnati although the extent of injuries is talked about by outsiders quite a bit during post season play, teams try to hide the information.
Offense:
The Stingrays clearly missed Morin despite being able to overcome the Everblades. The power play and penalty kill teams which frequently feature him looked out of sync at times especially, during the first two games he missed. However rookie Nikita Kashirsky, who is a native of Moscow, Russia, was a late-season acquisition out of the NCAA’s Division III ranks. Kashirsky has proved to be a second line center who has been able to fill part of the Morin vacuum. He has a plus/minus rating of +5 and has 12 points including four goals in 12 games. His goals include a dramatic game-winner in Game 5 in the last minute of the game that helped the ‘Rays complete a comeback from a three-goal deficit to win that pivotal game.
Surprisingly, because he is a defenseman, Zack Tarkir also has 12 points including four goals and a plus/minus rating of +8. Tarkir, who got the series-winning overtime goal against Florida also had a game-winning overtime goal in the first game of the series. Trent Campbell also has contributed 12 points with one goal in his point totals. Pierre-Luc O’Brien and Morin round out the five top Stingrays’ scorers with 11 points each.
Cincinnati can look to Dustin Sproat and Matt Syroczynski who have each scored seven goals in 11 playoff games and while South Carolina has a slightly better goal scored average at 3.75 versus the Cyclones’ average of 3.27, the disparity in their goals against averages in which Cincinnati leads, makes this a statistical wash.
Defense:
The South Carolina defense has played extremely well in complimenting the team’s goaltending tandem. Kiser has been missed as he does bring an imposing physical presence as well as his tough defense. He can counter-balance the rugged Cincinnati defense which has two defensemen among the top four leaders in penalty minutes during the playoffs.
Kiser’s return, if possible, will be important in this series. After a rough start in the first two games of the opening round series in which the ‘Rays allowed ten total goals the defense and goaltending has rebounded. Still Cincinnati has a better goals against average allowing 2.73 goals per game versus South Carolina’s 3.00 goals against average.
If Godfrey is ready and is not rusty he will add firepower at the point. Coach Jared Bednar is already getting great offensive play from Tarkir as well as Brad Farynuk at the point and solid play from all of his defensemen so he will have a tough decision on who sits if Godfrey returns.
Goaltending:
Jonathan Boutin and James Reimer have split the goaltending duties thus far in the playoffs with Boutin getting the bulk of the work. Boutin has appeared in nine games while Reimer has played in four. Stingrays coach Jared Bednar has made the point that “teams that go deep in the playoffs need two strong goaltenders.” To date, he simply inserts one of his two starters until they lose and then plays the other. Reimer, has a slightly better save percentage and goals against average. However, Boutin has won seven games while losing two and Reimer has one win and two losses. Bednar has also articulated that he “has equal confidence in each goalie.” Thus, he is not reluctant to use either goalie. Meanwhile, Ryan Nie appearing in five games for the Cyclones has the best goals against average in the playoffs, a sparkling 1.85.
Specialty Teams:
South Carolina currently has the second best power play in the playoffs as they are successful 22.7 percent of the time while the Cyclones have struggled. Cincinnati currently is scoring a 13.1 percent clip with the man advantage. Cincinnati has the better record on penalty kills at 85.7 while the ‘Rays will need improvement to their 82.9 success rate on the percent penalty killing effort. They also need to be aware that the Cyclones have scored three shorthanded goals to lead the playoffs in that category.
Series Outlook:
The Stingrays have broken one bug-a-boo that plagued them last year in their playoff run when they did not win any games on the road. While they were 0-8 last year on the road in the playoffs they won two of three games in Florida and won series-clinching road wins in both Florida and against Charlotte. Additionally, they have home ice advantage however; the Cyclones have been awesome on the road. The Cyclones had an ECHL best 22 road wins this season and are perfect on the road during the playoffs with a 5-0 record.
Despite this road success the Stingrays will win this series in six games if they stay out of the penalty box, Morin stays healthy and they play up to their potential. The question as posed earlier is can they recharge their collective batteries and not dwell on the past after the emotional and physically exhausting grinding they went through to get past the Everblades?
C ontact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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