ALLEN, Texas – The South Carolina Stingrays will take a 2-1 series lead back to their home ice, where the teams will play for the next three games, after defeating the Allen Americans 4-1 on Wednesday night in game three of the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals.
The Americans outshot the Rays in the opening period by a count of 10-4, but were unable to light the lamp as Jeff Jakaitis stood tall and refused any rebounds. The scoreless tie was broken midway through the second period when Michal Cajkovsky floated a soft shot through heavy traffic that got past Riley Gill, who was completely screened on the play. Allen continued their shot lead at 12-9 in the second period, but remained down by one at the second intermission.
Andrew Rowe slipped past the Americans defense and extended the Rays lead to 2-0 with a breakaway goal at the 5:16 mark. Allen answered back a little over two minutes later when Chris Crane fired the puck past Jakaitis at 7:33 to bring the Americans to within one. The Americans were then dealt a tough blow when Greger Hanson left the game after taking a high stick to the face. Hanson did not return for the remainder of the game and no penalty was assessed on the play. The Rays regained their two-goal lead late in the period when Rowe notched his second goal of the night, then 
Wayne Simpson capped the scoring for South Carolina with his empty netter at 18:07 to give the Stingrays the 4-1 victory.
The series now transitions to South Carolina, where the teams will play three times with game four of the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals set for Sunday evening at the North Charleston Coliseum; the puck drop is scheduled for 6:05PM CDT.
Contact the writer: maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer: Kimberly.Sauer@prohockeynews.com
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