NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays’ gave up three first period goals as the Kalamazoo Wings shutout the South Carolina Stingrays 3-0 tonight at the North Charleston Coliseum. The win gives the visitors a commanding 3-0 lead in the best of seven games series in the ECHL Eastern Conference Semifinals playoff matchup. The teams return to action Friday night in the low country when the Wings skate for a series sweep.
Losing goal tender Rob Madore surrendered two goals within a one minute period as the Wings jumped out to a 2-0 lead with less than four minutes gone in the opening stanza.
Forward Nick Sirota continued his hot post season picking up his sixth goal of the playoffs at the 2:44 mark. He was set up beautifully by defenseman Wes O’Neill and ageless Kory Karlander. Sirota is tied for the ECHL playoff scoring lead with ten points in seven games.
Less than a minute later Justin Taylor slipped the puck past Madore with Eric Kattelus and Harry Young drawing assists. Trent Daavettila ran the score to 3-0 with his second goal and eighth playoff point at 14:53 as the Wings had all the scoring necessary to beat the punch less ‘Rays. Kattelus and Taylor picked up their second points of the game on the strike.
The 1,075 fans present had little to cheer about in the contest as the Rays couldn’t solve Riley Gill in net for Kalamazoo. Gill stopped 30 shots in picking up the win, his sixth of the post season. The Minnesota native played NCAA hockey in Kalamazoo for the Western Michigan Broncos. Meanwhile once the Wings jumped out to the big lead they were content to play defense. They launched only one shot on Madore in the third period.
Referee Nick Krebsbach a graduate of the USA Hockey Officiating Development program whistled only four minor penalties in a quickly played game. South Carolina went 0-3 on power play opportunities while Kalamazoo failed on their lone man advantage. A late game fight between Sam Ftorek of the visitors and South Carolina’s Andrew Cherniwchan marred the otherwise quiet evening.
