ELMIRA, NY- The South Carolina Stingrays (5-2-0-0) 10 points, concluded an extremely successful five-game road swing with their fourth straight win Saturday night 5-3 against the Elmira Jackals. The match was played before 3,039 fans at First Arena. It was the ‘Rays’ second straight game and victory in Elmira. The four points earned in Elmira Friday and Saturday came after wins Thursday against the Reading Royals and a week ago Sunday over the Chicago Express. The ’Rays lost the first game of the road swing in Toledo.
The ‘Rays got leadership last night on offense from newly signed forward Bill Ryan who playing in his first game with South Carolina scored twice. Ryan’s second goal was the game winner. Forward Matt Pope registered two points on a goal and an assist while Sean Dolan picked up two helpers. Pope now leads the team with 11 points on four goals and seven assists. He has scored points in all seven games this season. David de Kastrozza and Trent Campbell got the visitor’s other goals.
Rookie goaltender Philipp Grubauer ran his ECHL record to 3-0-0-0 stopping 29 of the 32 shots he faced. Grubauer who has already had one call up to the American Hockey League is carrying 2.0 goals against average and a sparkling save percentage of 0.935. He leads all ECHL rookies in the save percentage category.
Elmira’s Artem Demkov got goals number six and seven for the Jackals and Maxime Gratchev picked up a shorthanded marker goal midway through the final period. The short handed strike and the resultant 4-3 score at 9:39 of the period held up until Campbell iced the game for the ‘Rays. He gave his team a two goal margin and the 5-3 winning score with his goal with 1:01 left in the game.
The ‘Rays’ fast start his season has been fueled in part by their success on the power play. In last night’s game they went three for five with the advantage and for the young season are scoring at a 27.3 clip on the power play. In the two back to back games against the Jackals they were seven for 19 with the advantage. They are currently averaging 3.43 goals per game. Defensively South Carolina has an 87.2 penalty kill percentage and is allowing an average of 2.57 goals against per game.
In addition to early season success on the power play, the ‘Rays have been seeing good balance across the score sheet. They are getting offensive help from the blue line with veteran Zach Takir standing second on the team in scoring with six points (1g-5a).
Meanwhile, forwards Pierre Luc-O’Brien (4g-1a), Kastrozza (3g-2a), Danick Paquette (3g-2a) and rookie Sean Dolan (2g-3a) all have five points thus far.
The Stingrays return to action at home Wednesday night against an uncharacteristically struggling Florida EverBlades team. The ‘Blades (2-4-0-1) with five points have lost two straight and are in last place in the ECHL South Division.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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