The Stingrays were back in the North Charleston Coliseum to continue their rescheduled game from December against the Flordia Everblades.
To catch up, Garet Hunt and Kyle Neuber would start today off in the penalty box from their fighting majors. Jonny Evans has the Rays lone goal from December, but will not be in the lineup today due to an upper body injury from last nights contest. We would start the night tied 1-1 with 12:49 to play in the first period, with Mitch Gibson in goal for South Carolina and Cam Johnson between the pipes for Florida.
Flordia would take the lead with five minutes remaining in the period with a goal from Will Reilly. South Carolina would start to pressure Johnson, and it would be Colin Swoyer who would wind up from the blue line as Johnson thought he had it, but the puck continued to trickle past the goal line.
A quick goal by Florida’s Oliver Chau would put the Blades up early in the second period, once again putting the Stingrays back into the corner. Joe Pendaza would get a power-play goal on the Leppard minor, putting the Blades up 4-2. With one minute remaining, the Everblades were called for a bench minor for too many men on the ice, but it seemed as though the players had talked the refs out of it, as play continued as usual to end the period.
With the third period underway, South Carolina started off on a power play from a late minor from Bobo Carpenter but were unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Stanislav Demnin would continue the Everblades domination, putting the score at 5-2 with 15 minutes left in the game, a place the Stingrays have been before. With about four minutes left, Gibson heads to the bench for the extra attacker, and it would be Jack Adams to help chomp at the lead with around three minutes left of play. With Gibson still on the bench, Flordia would get an empty net goal, putting the score at 6-3 with two minutes remaining as time ran down. Kyle Neuber would be surprisingly quiet the entire game, which is unlike him against the South Carolina squad.
Despite the score, South Carolina had outshot Florida 38-19. The Stingrays head to Savannah tomorrow, where they will need to bounce back and turn things around. While the newcomers seem to be fitting in well with the veteran squad, there is still some room for improvement on the power play execution, as well as some defensive issues that need to be ironed out if we want to be a Kelly Cup team. This squad seems to be playing down to other clubs levels, and not playing their game every night on the ice. Let’s hope that Coach Brenden Kotyk and Scott Davidson can get this team on the right path before it’s too late. In Coach Kotyk, we trust.
