NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Throughout the 2021 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs, the South Carolina Stingrays have been resilient. In round one, the Stingrays rebounded from losing games two and three to the Florida Everblades before taking games four and five to send the top seed in the Eastern conference home. In the conference final against Greenville, a game two loss that evened the best-of-five series was met with victories in games three and four to punch a ticket to the Kelly Cup final.
Sunday evening at the Carolina Ice Palace, South Carolina desperately needed to answer following a blowout loss to the Fort Wayne Komets in game one. It took perseverance through a wild second period but the Stingrays sent their fans home with smiles on their faces.
Max Novak collected a goal and two assists and Cole Ully added a goal and an assist to lead South Carolina to a 4-2 victory over the Komets in front of a seating-restricted crowd of 554. Goalie Hunter Shepard bounced back from allowing seven goals on Friday, stopping 20 of 22 Fort Wayne shots to help the Stingrays even the best-of-five title series at one win each. The series now shifts to Fort Wayne starting on Wednesday night with Game 3 followed by Game 4 on Friday and if necessary a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday.
Much was riding on the result of Game 2. Most of it was the Stingrays not wanting to head north down 0-2 to one of the toughest road buildings to play and win in. Secondly, South Carolina wanted its fans to see the final home game of the 2020-21 season be a winning one. Lastly, the Stingrays wanted to show that the brutal loss on Friday was not the Stingrays team that beat the two best teams in the East to get to the final.
From the opening faceoff to start the contest, Fort Wayne was interested in repeating Friday’s game plan. The Komets came out of the locker room looking to score early and often, putting pressure on the Stingrays from the get go. Unlike Friday, however, the Komets weren’t getting as many shots on Shepard as they did two nights earlier. In fact, despite having one power play in the frame, the visitors logged only six shots between the pipes. South Carolina succeeded in posting ten shots on Fort Wayne netminder Dylan Ferguson in the opening frame (with one power play helping out) but at the first intermission the teams were in a scoreless deadlock.
Things got much more hairy for the goalies in the middle frame as a total of six goals were scored between the two teams. South Carolina opened the scoring at the 2:30 mark during a power play. Ully led the charge into the Komets end, eventually sliding a pass to Justin Florek going through the slot. Florek sent a shot that Ferguson stopped but the rebound kicked out to the faceoff circle to the left of the cage right to Novak. Novak wasted no time in snapping the puck back at the net, beating Ferguson to the short side past his glove and arm. For Novak, it was his fourth goal of the playoffs.
The Komets wasted little time in evening the scoreboard up. Exactly18 seconds later at 2:48, Alan Lyszczarczyk fed Shawn Szydlowski for a shot from the mid-slot area. Shepard made the save but Anthony Nellis was on the doorstep to cash in the rebound for his seventh of the postseason to knots things at 1-1.
Just under four minutes after Nellis’ tally, the Stingrays took control of the game for good. After watching the puck being dumped in the Fort Wayne defensive zone, Novak hustled hard on the forecheck behind the net. He won the battle for the disc and saw teammate Dan DeSalvo streaking into open space in front. Novak sent the puck out and DeSalvo went high over Ferguson’s shoulder for his third and a lead that the home team never relinquished.
South Carolina continued to push for an insurance marker but the Komets netminder Ferguson seemed to regain control. With Shepard settled in, it appeared that the game would go to the third as a one-goal affair. However, as it sometimes goes in the ECHL, looks can be deceiving.
The Stingrays did get the brace to go up 3-1 at the 16:22 mark. Novak and Matthew Weis did the dirty work along the boards, eventually ending up with Weis controlling the puck. He saw a passing lane and hit Ully who was in the faceoff circle just off the slot. Using a defender as a screen, Ully went far side past the goalie’s blocker glove for his fourth goal of the playoffs, sending the home fans into a frenzy.
Two goal leads can be a tenuous event and Fort Wayne wasted little time in drawing back within one. A hard push off the post-goal faceoff led to Stephen Harper driving to the cage and putting the puck into the crease. What happened next was utter chaos as Shepard ended up with all five Komets as well as every one of his own teammates on the ice crowded into the blue paint. In what could only be described as a miracle, the puck was never completely tied up for a whistle before Harper poked it across the line. With no video replay being available, the on-ice officials huddled and ruled it a good goal for Harper’s third to make it a 3-2 contest.
Not to be undone, South Carolina went back on the offensive following the faceoff and regained the two-goal margin. Zach Malatesta led the foray across the Fort Wayne defensive blueline and dropped a pass over the Tyler Nanne for a drive from the high slot. Ferguson made the save but the rebound kicked out to Caleb Herbert who buried it into the cage for his second.
The sequence of three goals in a span of 56 seconds set a record for fastest three goals between two teams in a game. The six-goal second period also made headlines as it was the third-highest scoring period during a finals game in league history.
South Carolina went into defensive lockdown mode in the third period. The Stingrays held Fort Wayne to seven shots in the final frame with just two coming after the Komets pulled Ferguson (26 saves on 30 shots) for an extra attacker with two minutes remaining in regulation. The Stingrays mustered only three shots in the period but offense was not their objective at that point as they held on for the win.
Game 3 in Fort Wayne on Wednesday is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop with Friday’s Game 4 set for an 8 p.m. opening draw.
Notes: Final shots were 30-22 in favor of South Carolina… The Komets went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Stingrays were 1-for-4… Among the attendees at the game were several former Stingrays players as well as ECHL Commissioner Emeritus Patrick J. Kelly, whom the championship trophy is named for.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.