FISHERS- The Indy Fuel hosted the Utah Grizzlies for the second night in a row. Despite their first goal being overturned, the Fuel put out another four goal statement win against the Grizzlies, shutting them out 4-0.

1ST PERIOD

Just a few minutes into the game, it appeared Eric Martin scored for Indy but after a goal review, it was overturned due to goaltender interference.

It was Martin who took the game’s first penalty at 11:31. He was sent to the box for slashing.

At 16:03, Fuel captain Chris Cameron scored with the help of Jesse Tucker and Alex DiPaolo. This gave Indy the 1-0 lead.

Utah’s Josh Zinger took a roughing penalty at 17:36, but the Grizzlies killed it off.

After one period, the Fuel were outshooting Utah, 9-8.

2ND PERIOD

DiPaolo earned his second point of the night with a goal to open the second period. Cody Laskosky and Matt Petgrave claimed the assists on the goal that gave Indy a 2-0 lead.

Tucker took a slashing penalty at 11:00 to put the Fuel on the penalty kill, and they were successful in killing it off.

Indy’s Tyler Weiss took a tripping penalty at 19:57 which would carry over into the third period as time expired soon after.

Through two, Utah was outshooting Indy, 14-13 despite being down 2-0.

3RD PERIOD

After the Weiss penalty was killed off, it was Weiss again who went to the penalty box. This time, at 3:24, he was penalized for holding. Again, it was successfully killed off.

Michael Marchesan scored at 14:39 to make it 3-0 in favor of the Fuel, with the help of Dustin Manz and Christian Berger.

About two minutes later, Jordan Martin added another to make it 4-0. Fuel newcomers Weiss and Jay Ahearn claimed the assists.

Time expired soon after and Indy claimed the 4-0 victory. Mitchell Weeks claimed his sixth shutout with the Indy Fuel, a franchise record he already held.

These two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon to close out the series.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Neil Shea broke a scoreless deadlock of 28:40 and got help from Wade Murphy into an empty net and Ryan O’Hara late on the power play, but Pierce Charleson stole the show, powering the Greenville Swamp Rabbits with 27 saves, including a “save of the year” candidate, to earn his first career shutout in a 3-0 win over the Savannah Ghost Pirates on Saturday night. The win cuts the deficit between the Swamp Rabbits, now tied for 5^th in the South Division, to six points behind the Ghost Pirates in the final playoff spot with 13 games to go.

Both goalies dueled to a scoreless deadlock through one period of play, with Charleson stopping a dozen Ghost Pirates chances and Vinnie Purpura, in net for the Ghost Pirates, turning aside 10 Swamp Rabbits shots.

Before the deadlock was broken, Charleson came up with arguably the “save of the year” to keep the game without a goal. With 13:16 left in the second, the Ghost Pirates broke in transition with numbers, and the puck carrier deferred to Nick Granowicz streaking down the right. With millimeters to spare, Charleson spun in his crease and snagged the puck out of mid-air, robbing Granowicz of a surefire goal. Less than a minute later, the Swamp Rabbits broke through with Neil Shea’s second as a Swamp Rabbit. With 12:20 remaining, Jake Murray contained the left side of the blue line and zipped a pass to Shea, who rifled a shot from the right circle that beat Purpura’s glove to give the Swamp Rabbits a 1-0 lead. Charleson stopped another eight shots in the second period.

Purpura was pulled from the Ghost Pirates net in the final minutes of the third period, but Wade Murphy won a race into the attacking zone and took advantage of a defender falling, sending the puck into the empty net for a 2-0 Swamp Rabbits lead with 2:13 remaining. With Riley Hughes ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct and the bench assessed an additional minor, the Swamp Rabbits ended the game on the power play, with Ryan O’Hara rifling a one-timer while up two men to bring the game to it’s 3-0 final with 45 seconds left (Keaton Mastrodonato and Parker Berge assisted). Charleson stopped seven more shots to secure his first professional shutout.

Pierce Charleson ultimately stopped 27 shots in the effort, securing his second win head-to-head against Savannah (8-7-3-0).

The Swamp Rabbits conclude their franchise record 11-game road trip with the final game of their “three-in-three” tomorrow against the Jacksonville Icemen. Puck drop at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena is set for 5:00 p.m. EST.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – On the verge of clinching a berth to the Kelly Cup Playoffs, the South Carolina Stingrays needed two third period goals as they held on late to beat the Allen Americans, 5-4, on Saturday evening at the North Charleston Coliseum in front of 5,430 fans. 

For the second straight night, South Carolina (40-18-1-2) found the opener early from Anthony Rinaldi. The forward finished a chance in the low slot giving the Stingrays a 1-0 lead 3:14 in.

Over ten minutes later, the Stingrays doubled their advantage. Kyler Kupka knocked home a centering feed from Dean Loukus on the power play to put South Carolina ahead, 2-0.

Allen (32-23-5-0) did not go away quietly. Danny Katic cut the Stingrays lead in half with 4:06 left in the first, and early in the second, Harrison Blaisdell tied the game at two with a shorthanded goal.

With the two-goal lead gone, South Carolina was searching for a response, and one of their newest acquisitions delivered again.

Rinaldi tucked home an odd-man chance just over five minutes into the second period pushing South Carolina back in front, 3-2. The Stingrays pressed for insurance, peppering Americans goalie Marco Costantini with 17 shots in the middle frame alone, but South Carolina only took the one-goal lead to the third.

Over seven minutes into the final frame, Kupka punched home his second goal of the night building South Carolina’s lead back to two, 4-2, but the Americans started to chip away. Michael Gildon made it a one-goal game again with 8:19 left in regulation.

Heading into the final minutes with only a one-goal cushion, the Stingrays got a much needed insurance goal. Casey McDonald snapped home his second goal in as many nights with 5:04 remaining, giving the Stingrays a 5-3 lead.

The Americans pulled their goalie to bring out the extra-attacker with 2:32 left and it paid off. Katic scored his second of the night making it 5-4 in favor of South Carolina with 1:58 remaining.

Allen again brought out the extra-attacker looking for an equalizer but the Stingrays withstood a flurry from the Americans in the final minute to win 5-4, clinching a berth to the Kelly Cup Playoffs, presented by Plumb Pro+.

With the victory, the Stingrays have qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the 30th time in 33 seasons. South Carolina has points in 15 of its last 16 games, and have 24 wins at home this season, second most in the ECHL.

GLENS FALLS – Brannon McManus scored the overtime winner as the Adirondack Thunder defeated the Reading Royals 4-3 on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 5,347 fans at Harding Mazzotti Arena.

McManus started the scoring 12:36 into the game as he fired a shot over the shoulder of goaltender Yaniv Perets for the 1-0 lead. The goal was McManus’ 24th of the year with assists from Dylan Wendt and Grant Loven.

Reading answered back as Jacob Frasca sent a shot by goaltender Tyler Brennan just 1:27 into the second period to even the score 1-1. Liam Devlin collected the lone assist on Frasca’s tenth goal of the year.

Just over midway through the second period, Matt Salhany fired in a power-play goal on a one timer from the left circle to give the Thunder a 2-1 advantage. The goal was Salhany’s 15th of the year with assists from Kevin O’Neil and Jeremy Hanzel at 11:22.

The Royals came back to tie the game late in the second on the power play and the third period started 2-2.

Adirondack took a one-goal lead on the power play in the third period as Patrick Grasso fired in a wrister for his 12th of the season. The goal came at 6:09 of the third with the lone assist from Matt Salhany for the 3-2 advantage.

Kyle Haskins then scored on the power play for Reading to eventually force overtime. The goal came with just 4:14 left in the third with Owen McLaighlin and Ben Meehan collecting assists. It was Haskin’s tenth of the season and the game went to extra time, tied 3-3.

On a power play in overtime, McManus scored his second of the night and 25th of the year to seal the 4-3 victory. The win was Adirondack’s third in a row.

The Adirondack Thunder returns to Harding Mazzotti Arena next Friday through Sunday against the Kalamazoo Wings. Fans can enjoy drink specials each game and Country Night is Saturday, March 28. The first 1,000 fans (21+) into the arena get a FREE Thunder / Michelob Ultra koozie and stay after the game for line dancing in Heritage Hall. Then Sunday is the final postgame skate of the season.

PORTLAND, ME –  The Maine Mariners, proud affiliates of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and AHL’s Providence Bruins, completed a home-and-home sweep of the Worcester Railers with a 4-1 home victory on Saturday night at the Cross Insurance Arena. Max Andreev scored a pair of power play goals, while the Mariners penalty kill was a perfect 8/8.

The Mariners used the man advantage to strike early. Max Andreev, camped at the goal line, tried to stuff a pass to the back door that caromed off the skate of Railers defenseman Cam McDonald and in for the 1-0 Maine lead. Midway through the period, the Mariners doubled the advantage when Linus Hemstrom followed Robert Cronin’s shot off the pad of William Lavalliere and finished the rebound out in front. The Railers sliced the deficit in half at 13:50 on Anthony Repaci’s breakaway goal. The Mariners led 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Neither team scored in the middle frame, and it was Andreev cashing in with another power play goal in the third for insurance. At 7:27, he took a quick feed from Robert Cronin in the middle and picked out a spot from the right circle up and over Lavalliere to make it 3-1. Brooklyn Kalmikov hit the empty net with 2:02 remaining to seal the 4-1 victory.

Brad Arvanitis made 37 saves on 38 Worcester shots to win his 19^th game of the season. The Mariners improved to 14-1-1 in their last 16 games, and decreased their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to 11 points with 13 games remaining.

KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo Wings (27-26-3-3), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, could not overcome goals on the first two shots of the second period by the Rapid City Rush (25-30-4-1), falling Saturday at Wings Event Center, 3-2.

Rapid City took the initial lead, scoring a goal on its first shot of the contest at the 1:02 mark of the first period.

Evan Dougherty (4) continued his hot streak by sneaking in a five-hole goal on the rush at the 3:14 mark. On the play, Colson Gengenbach (6) started the play behind the Kalamazoo net, passing to Collin Saccoman (14), who launched a beautiful rink-wide pass from his own goal line to Dougherty, rushing in the slot for the goal.

Unfortunately, the Rush responded with a pair of second-period goals at the 4:35 and 5:56 marks to bring the score to 3-1 Rapid City heading into the final frame.

Ryan Cox (14) then deposited a net-front goal at the 2:32 mark to bring the K-Wings within one. On the setup, the K-Wings and Rush skated 4-on-4 as Saccoman (15) started a 3-on-3 blitz into the offensive zone, finding Jackson Kunz (5), who quickly relayed to Cox for the goal.

Jonathan Lemieux (10-7-1-3) was stout in net, making 35 saves in the contest. The K-Wings went 4-for-5 on the penalty and 0-for-4 on the power-play.

Next up, Kalamazoo concludes the three-game series versus the Rush at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday at Wings Event Center, featuring a kids’ Jersey Giveaway.