NORTH CHARLESTON, SC- The Stingrays brought home a six game road trip winning streak and added a win to the roll Friday night to the delight of most of the 3,452 fans in the North Charleston Coliseum. The 4-1 home ice win over the Greenville Road Warriors improved the ‘Rays’ season record to 22-16-2. The Rays now hold down fourth place in the Eastern Conference of the ECHL.
Goal tender Daren Machesney stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced in picking up the win as forwards Maxime Lacroix, David de Kastrozza, Pierre Luc-O’Brien and Trent Campbell contributed goals to collectively lead the ‘Rays’ attack.
The first period saw a flurry of scoring bunched into the middle of the period. South Carolina opened with Lacroix’s goal at 9:11. He used a wicked wrist shot glove side to beat losing Road Warriors’ goal tender Nic Riopel who saw 25 shots in absorbing the loss. O’Brien and defenseman Johann Kroll picked up assists on the first goal of the game.
The 1-0 first period lead did not hold up however for very long. Greenville’s Justin Bowers scored just over three minutes later on setup passes from Jeff Prough and defenseman Cullen Eddy as the Road Warriors drew even at 1-1.
The ‘Rays went ahead for good in the game 2-1 at 14:15 as David de Kastrozza smoked the game winner with a shorthanded score. His strike came off of assists from Campbell and defenseman Brett Flemming.
The two teams traded a few opportunities but no goals in period two as both teams had just six shots in the middle stanza. A late second period minor penalty to Bowers carried over into period three and that’s when O’Brien cashed in and early.
His team leading 18th goal of the season made it 3-1. The goal came on the above mentioned power play just 26 seconds into the last period. Kroll and Lacroix were credited with assists on the lone power play tally in the game for South Carolina. The ‘Rays went one for three on power plays in the game.
Campbell’s 10th goal of the season at 17:10 ended all thoughts of a comeback by the visiting Road Warriors as 0’Brien picked up another assist to end the game with three points. The 4-1 final score held up as the Stingrays’ defense held the visitors to just seven third period shots. On the night South Carolina killed off all three Greenville power plays.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
