ORLANDO, FLA – Coming off a tough week in Boise, Idaho, the South Carolina Stingrays returned to divisional play with a Wednesday night tilt against the Orlando Solar Bears. Despite holding nine wins in eleven previous meetings with the Solar Bears, the Stingrays came up short in a 3-1 loss to the squad from Central Florida.
Both teams were coming off of fairly long layoffs between games so rust could have been expected to play a role on both sides of the ice. The Stingrays (44-14-3-1) also were at a disadvantage with two of its key players, Andrew Cherniwchan and Max Novak, missing from the lineup. Over on the other bench, host Orlando (27-29-5-1) had a key cog back as goalie Clint Windsor returned from a callup to AHL Belleville, giving the home team a boost between the pipes.
The first period was a tight, tense battle as South Carolina netminder Parker Milner matched Windsor almost save for save through the opening twenty minutes. The only shot that got past the Stingrays goalie was when Tad Kozun, who was recently acquired by the Solar Bears at the trade deadline, converted the rebound of a shot by teammate Chris LeBlanc on a power play for his first goal in an Orlando uniform and 13th overall.
The middle frame was a carbon copy of the first with Milner (32 total saves) and Windsor (26 total saves) putting on a show of textbook goaltending. The score stayed at 1-0 until late in the period when Orlando’s penalty killers came up with yet another big play. During a kill opportunity, Trevor Olson sent the puck out of his defensive zone to center ice. LeBlanc jumped on the disc and sped into the Stingrays end before whipping a shot past Milner for his 14th tally of the season and the team’s league-leading 17th shorthanded score.
Down by two with twenty minutes left, the Stingrays came out motivated in the third period, putting a slew of shots on net. South Carolina’s fourth straight shot came off the stick of Cole Ully and it found its way past Windsor for the Stingrays forward’s 12th of the year at the 3:16 mark. The assists on the goal went to Dan DeSalvo and Cam Askew.
The team went back and forth for much of the final frame with Milner and Windsor both stepping up and making big saves. It was not until the Solar Bears’ Olson buried an empty net tally for his 20th of the season in the final 15 seconds to put the game away.
The Stingrays finished the game 0-for-2 on the power play while the Solar Bears went 1-for-4.
Both teams are off until Saturday when South Carolina travels to Jacksonville to take on the Icemen while Orlando heads off to visit the Florida Everblades in Estero.
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