ESTERO, Flor. – The South Carolina Stingrays were watching the scoreboard as they clashed with the Florida EverBlades twice over the weekend to end their regular season series against the Floridians. The two teams split the weekend series as each team won by identical 5-3 scores. South Carolina finished the season with a record of 6-4-2-1 against Florida in a very evenly matched season series. The ‘Rays’ concern was partially Florida who are nine points behind them, but rather three other teams challenging for the American Conference lead and conference home ice advantage in the ECHL playoffs. Kalamazoo , Charlotte and Cincinnati are pressing South Carolina for the overall lead in the ECHL American Conference. After this weekend’s action, the ‘Rays have only a four point lead over Kalamazoo, with Charlotte and Cincinnati one point behind the K-Wings. The overall conference winner gets home ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs. Idaho in the National Conference has the overall ECHL lead. Kalamazoo and Charlotte have played three less games than the Stingrays while Cincinnati has two games in hand. In game one against Florida, Stingrays’ forward Keith Johnson hammered home two goals to lead the visitors to a 5-3 win in front of a big Friday night crowd at Germain Arena. Ross Carlson struck first on the night as Florida jumped out to a first period lead just 17 seconds into the game, to the delight of most of the 7,344 fans in the building. He deflected a low bouncing puck past the eventual winner in goal for South Carolina, Shane Connelly. It was Carlson’s 21 goal of the season. Despite the quick strike, Connelly and the ‘Rays’ defense settled down, as both teams were unable to score any more in the first period. South Carolina outshot the EverBlades 14-5, but could not solve Chris Beckford-Tseu in goal for Florida in the opening period. K. Johnson got his first goal of the night and his 26 of the year at 10:08 of the second period, to pull the visitors even at 1-1. Trent Campbell and defenseman Grant Farrell got helpers on the goal. A little more than a minute later Farrell got his second goal of the season on a power play off an assist by Rob Ricci giving the ‘Rays a 2-1 lead. The lead for South Carolina lasted about five minutes. Shea Guthrie with assists from Ernie Hartlieb and A.J. Thelen knotted the score and the teams skated off the ice after period two tied 2-2. South Carolina struck twice quickly to start the third period. Chris Capraro, recently traded to the ‘Rays from Florida, used a wicked wrist shot from the slot to score his first goal for the ‘Rays and his seventh goal of the year. The goal, at 1:17, drew assists from Trevor Bruess and Jake Hauswirth. A minute and a half later, K. Johnson got his 27 goal of the year and the game winner as his brother Gregg Johnson and d-man Johann Kroll got set up honors. The Johnson brothers had seven shots on goal each in the game. The ‘Blades roared back with huge power play goal to close the gap to 4-3 when first K. Johnson and then defenseman Nate Kiser went to the box on minors. Milan Gajic cashed in on the two man advantage at 10:02 off a slap shot. Guthrie and Hartlieb were credited with assists. The Gajic goal came just three seconds before the initial penalty expired and the EverBlades still had a 1:50 left on a one man advantage. The advantage worked, but not for Florida. Hauswirth got a shorthanded goal as Bruess picked up his second assist in the game at 11:42 and the ‘Rays’ held on for the 5-3 win. The ‘Rays outshot Florida 43 to 30 in game one. The teams clashed again Saturday night and the EverBlades returned Friday night’s favor with a 5-3 win. The Stingrays (38- 18 -6-6) and Florida EverBlades (35-22-4-5) drew a crowd of 6,592 at Germain Arena. The teams skated to a scoreless first period and then both teams exploded in period two combining for six strikes. Losing goaltender Shane Connelly gave up a power play goal at 8:21 of period two as Shea Guthrie was set up by Dominic Osman and A.J. Thelen. The ‘Blades lead lasted all of 20 seconds when Stingrays’ rookie Jake Hauswirth picked up his 17th goal of the year at 8:41. Scott Bartlett and Trevor Bruess were credited with the assists. Next, forward Matt Scherer pushed the ‘Rays ahead 2-1 beating winning goal tender Chris Beckford-Tseu at the 14:35 mark. Spencer Carbery and Johann Kroll got helpers. That lead didn’t last, as Blade’s center man, Ross Carlson picked up goal number 22 on the year a minute and a half later. Two minutes plus, later Florida jumped on top 3-2 as Colin Nicholson picked up an errant pass and scored an unassisted marker at 18:20. However, again the lead didn’t hold, as South Carolina defenseman Jason Fredericks got his first professional goal on setups by Gregg Johnson and Trent Campbell. This goal at 19:36 on a power play closed out the high scoring second period and the teams went into the second intermission tied at 3-3. The third period was tense and scoreless until Florida broke it open late in the third period. Carlson netted his second goal of the game and number 23 of the season at 17:34 to break the tie. Defenseman Hartlieb and forward Gajic combined on the assists. Next with G. Johnson off for interference at 18:33 the ‘Blades secured the win when Brandon Buck scored off assists from Hartlieb and Gajic. South Carolina returns home next Friday, March 26, to host the Reading Royals in the last regular season home game of the season. They then play three straight games on the road versus the Gwinnett Gladiators on Wednesday, March 30, followed by clashes the following Friday and Saturday to finish up, before the playoffs commence. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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