ESTERO, Fla – The South Carolina Stingrays allowed the Florida EverBlades to roar back from a three goal deficit and score five straight goals in the last period tonight losing by a final score of 6-5. A crowd of 4,695 at Germain Arena saw a bit of a repeat of the Ray’s last performance against the EverBlades, a 7-1 loss last week in North Charleston, SC.
In both losses uneven goaltending, lapses in defensive play and untimely penalties contributed to the defeats. The latest loss was more stunning than the first as South Carolina led for almost the entire game. This is one the Stingrays should have won. The Stingrays jumped off to great start in period one when Keith Johnson scored on a power play opportunity at the 5:30 mark. Johnson’s 10th goal of the season was assisted by Maxime Lacroix and Josh Godfrey. Florida’s Ryan Lang answered at the 16:25 mark with assists coming from Patrick Bordeleau and Peter Metcalf. It was Lang’s 16th goal of the season. Period one ended 1-1 with both teams playing well.
The Stingrays owned period two scoring twice in the first five minutes. The scoring started with Michael Dubuc scoring his team leading 23rd of the season, at 0:57 of the period. Pierre-Luc Obrien who would score his 10th goal of the year a little later at 5:03 of the period got the only assist on Dubuc’s goal.
The Rays also scored the last goal of period two, this one an unassisted shorthanded goal from Josh Godfrey. Intercepting a puck at center ice the defenseman skated in and beat Florida goal tender David Leggio. The goal at the 16:23 mark sent Leggio to the bench replaced by backup goalie Anton Khudobin.
Meanwhile Jeremy Duchesne on loan to the Rays from the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL in goal for South Carolina was cruising along through two periods stopping 24 of 25 shots he faced and going into period three leading 4-1. He looked like he was on his way to winning his second straight game after beating Charlotte 5-4 last Saturday night.
Unfortunately, for South Carolina the roof fell in on Duchesne and the rest of the Rays in period three. It collapsed quickly during a flurry of penalties with Florida scoring five goals within five minutes. First Florida chipped away at the lead when Mathieu Roy scored his 12th of the year to close the gap to 4-2 at 13:17 of the final period. The EverBlades added a shorthanded goal by Kevin Baker his 37th of the season making the score 4-3 at the 15:46 mark. This was followed by another power play goal by Ernie Hartlieb at 16:58 his 13th of the season, which tied the game. Still on the power play, a goal by Andrew Fournier at 17:21 gave the home team the lead and they were still not finished. Finally, with a 5-3 advantage a power play goal again by Roy ended the scoring for the EverBlades at the 18:07 mark.
The Rays while stunned managed to score their fifth goal of the evening on a long shot by Scott Romfro just outside the offensive zone with an extra attacker on the ice and the Stingrays net empty at 19:08 of the final period.
The two teams face off again tomorrow in Florida in what will be a test of team character for the Rays. South Carolina will play Florida three more times this week and must overcome tonight’s third period collapse. The Stingrays have now lost 13 of their last 20 games and while they may have built enough of a cushion to survive for the playoffs, they are clearly playing way below expecations.
They may have help on the way. If travel connections work newly signed goaltender Jonathan Boutin should be available and in goal for the rest of the games this week against Florida.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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