NORTH CHARLESTON, SC-The South Carolina Stingrays (21-14-1-1) used a three game weekend series against the Trenton Devils (13-16-0-3) to pickup six points and insert themselves back into the playoff and division title race in the ECHL Eastern Conference and South Division. On Sunday, they hammered the Trenton Devils 5-2 after winning by scores of 3-2 on Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday’s win came via a shootout. Forward Rob Ricci had a monster weekend with four goals and has potted seven over his last four games.
Sunday game action-photo courtesy SC Stingrays
Additionally, the final win moved the Stingrays into second place in the ECHL Eastern Conference South Division. They are tied with the Florida EverBlades in points (44) but have played three fewer games than the ‘Blades. The ‘Rays and Florida will square off in a big Friday night battle this coming weekend in a single game series at the North Charleston Coliseum. Friday evening’s January 7th contest produced lots of penalties but most came out of one major scrum at the end of the second period. Otherwise both teams played good defense with lots of hitting and thrilling end to end action before South Carolina win grabbed the 3-2 win. Defenseman Dylan Yeo got the game’s first goal for South Carolina and Rob Ricci scored twice in third period for the 3-2 South Carolina comeback victory. Jeff Prough and Dan Charleston got the scores for Trenton. Todd Ford picked up the win in goal out dueling Trenton’s Dave Caruso. Ford stopped 28 of 30 shots. Caruso also looked at 30 shots. Saturday night’s contest was another thriller with the same 3-2 result for South Carolina but this time via a shootout. Trenton jumped out to a 2-0 lead before South Carolina could answer. A first period power play goal by Ryan Hayes at 15:48 of the period made it 1-0 at the break. He had a rebound drop at his skates and he banged home a shot with a deke from the top of the crease to beat Jared De Michiel in goal for the Stingrays. Charleston scored Trenton’s second marker on a bit of a strange play 6:31 into the second period. He came in deep to the goal line near the corner and caught DeMichiel a little too far forward in his crease. Charleston banged the shot off the back of the South Carolina goalie for a 2-0 lead. Up stepped Ricci again with a quick reply for the home team. Just eight seconds later he halved the Trenton lead with his 16th goal of the season. He and his line have been a major force over the past four games. This low shot was his sixth goal in his last three games. He and his line mates Tommy Goebel and Samson Mahbod have been on fire. The three smaller but highly skilled trio seem to have clicked to the point that ‘Rays’ fans are arguing over what nickname to give the line. Big Jake Hauswirth got the equalizer at 17:21 on a power play with a nifty snap shot that beat former ‘Rays’ goalie Shane Connelly on his glove side from the near side circle. Hauswirth who has been a healthy scratch several times of late had just jumped over the boards in relief when David de Kastrozza slipped him a pass from the sideboards which he buried for the 2-2 tie. Defenseman Bryan Schmidt also picked up an assist on the play. A hard fought end to end third period plus five minutes of overtime produced a ton of excitement for the crowd of 3,660 but no goals. A couple of almost goals by both teams that hit goal posts and lots of opportunities plus a late overtime penalty to South Carolina kept the crowd on edge. The ‘Rays were able to kill off the overtime penalty surviving the four on three man disadvantage with some great penalty killing work by Nate Kiser and Pierre-Luc O’Brien. The small sturdy O’Brien was particularly outstanding on the penalty kill blocking two shots and clearing the zone several times. Only one shooter was able to best either goalie in the five round shootout. Samson Mahbod struck in the fourth round to beat the tough luck losing net minder Connelly. Meanwhile DeMichiel turned all five Devils away with a couple of great saves and the help of two goalposts dingers. He has now won six straight games in goal. A Sunday kid’s day crowd of 2,352 watched the Devils jump out to a lead for the second straight game in the final game of the weekend series. Once again the ‘Rays rallied to tie the game and then win going away 5-2. They exploded for four unanswered goals with three goals in the second period and another in the third for the win. Matt Lombardi of Trenton opened the scoring using a quick snapper to beat goalie Todd Ford a little more than five minutes into the game for the first Devils’ lead. The lead lasted until Ricci got his 17th of the season on a power play. His line mates Goebel and Mahbod got the setups.
Trenton took a second lead 2-1 at 6:06 as Ryan Hayes got a nice pass from Charleston and swept the puck past Ford. After that strike however it was all ‘Rays. First Pierre-Luc O’Brien got his third shorthanded goal of the season as he combined with Ricci to score on a two on one rush. Patrick Cullity started the play and got the secondary assist. The O’Brien goal his 9th of the season came at 15:23.
Just over two minutes later de Kastrozza combined with defenseman Josh Godfrey and Hauswirth to grab the first South Carolina lead. The goal at 17:46 was followed by another less than a minute later. This time Matt Scherer got his 10th of the campaign with a laser beam set up by Jordan Pietrus. The tide had turned and South Carolina held a 4-2 lead at the intermission.
Next up, Hauswirth got his second goal in the series and sixth of the year with de Kastrozza figuring in with his second point of the night. Shortly after the ‘Rays went up 5-2 three straight games worth of familiarity and Tr enton’s frustration boiled over. First at 11:33 and again at 14:02 a number of fighting, unsportsmanlike and roughing penalties sent a number of players from both teams to the box.
Dave Caruso took the loss for Trenton stopping 32 of 37 shots while Ford swept aside 18 of 20 Trenton shots on net for his second won of the series. Caruso stopped 32 of 37 Stingrays shots. Ford picked up the win blocking 18 of 20 Devils chances.
Notes: Former Coach Jared Bednar has been named the West Division Coach for the American Hockey League All-Star team. The first year AHL coach has his Peoria Rivermen in first place in the Western Division with a record of 25-10-1 and 53 points. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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