NORTH CHARLESTON, N.C. -The South Carolina Stingrays struggled mightily during the first 20 games of the season have suddenly started to look more like a playoff team, having reeled off four straight wins. The ‘Rays have won seven of their last 10 games, bringing their overall record to (14-13-1-0) 29 points, good for sixth place over all in the ECHL Eastern Conference. The latest win was the second victory this weekend, over the Florida Everblades. They beat the Everblades Sunday afternoon at the North Charleston Coliseum by a 3-2 margin in a shootout. The Rays also defeated Florida Friday night at home 3-0 and sandwiched in a 3-2 road victory Saturday night at Gwinnett. South Carolina earned all six points available this past weekend, gaining momentum as they head into the holiday break. This afternoon, a kid’s day crowd of 2,669, watched the home team fall behind twice in the game, but battle back behind winning goal tender Todd Ford who sealed his win by stonewalling all four of the Florida shooters he faced in the shootout. Meanwhile Rob Ricci and Tommy Goebel pushed shootout pucks past losing Florida net minder Bobby Goepfert to ensure the win for the ‘Rays. Florida ’s Mike McKenzie got the Everblades off to a 1-0 lead in regulation time at the 14:54 mark of period one. He blasted a nifty wrist shot, that beat Ford shoulder high from the left side face-off circle. McKenzie got helpers from forward Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll and defenseman Bobby Raymond on his ninth goal of the season. South Carolina fought back from this first deficit to forge their first tie at 1-1, as Trent Campbell laced a backhander past Goepfert, off a pass from Pierre-Luc O’Brien. Campbell who rejoined the ‘Rays Friday evening after a six week stay in the American Hockey league had four points, including two goals over this three game weekend. Campbell’s short-handed break-away goal came as he was sprung up the middle by an O’Brien pass, while ‘Rays’ defenseman Nate Kiser was in the penalty box for hooking. Florida regained a 2-1 lead less than a minute into the third period, as forward Francis Lemieux got a deflection, while Florida was on a power play after an early period penalty assessment against the ‘Rays. Lemieux (12g-22a) 32 points is currently the third leading scorer in the ECHL. His deflection came off a bullet of a shot, from the point, by defenseman Ethan Graham. The other point player defenseman David Fischer picked up the secondary assist on Lemieux’s goal. The ‘Rays fought back again to tie the game 2-2, off a David de Kastrozza unassisted wrist shot at 10:54 of the final period. He picked up a turn-over and beat Goepfert to the glove side from the left-wing circle. It was the big right wing’s fifth goal during the month of December. The five goals have come in his last six games. He had a goal in each game against Florida this weekend. The 2-2 tie held up for the remainder of the third period despite a four and half minute man advantage for South Carolina. Everblades’ defenseman Phil Paquet picked up a major penalty, plus a game misconduct at 13:30 of the period on a check from behind. However, the ‘Rays could not score and lost the last 30 seconds of the power play when Campbell picked up a minor penalty. Things became a little more scary for South Carolina, as another minor penalty on the ‘Rays gave the Everblades an abbreviated two-man advantage in the waning seconds of regulation time. Even with a power play carry over for Florida from regulation time, neither team could score in the overtime period. This set up the shootout and Ford responded. He stopped all four Florida shooters, while Ricci and Goebel dealt Goepfert the shootout loss. Ford stopped 32 of 34 Florida shots on goal, while Goepfert allowed two goals on 23 Stingrays attempts. South Carolina resumes action on December 26, 2010 once again travelling to Gwinnett; then finish up 2010 with games at Greenville on the 27, and then at home versus Greenville on December 30 and again on New Year’s Eve. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
Related
You must be logged in to post a comment.