The South Carolina Stingrays took on the Wichita Thunder for the first of three meetings this weekend. Wichita currently sits at the bottom of the league with 29 points, while their forward, Peter Bates, is second in the ECHL in scoring with 44 points in 37 games. With Patrick Harper and Josh Wilkins both exploring options in Europe, lineup changes were less detrimental with the return of Empey and O’Neil from Hershey.
The Stingrays drew first blood six minutes into the period as Ryan Leibold found the puck off of the rebound of Beck Warm. Right off of the goal face off, South Carolina again rushed the goal and had an open opportunity, but Warm was thanking his lucky stars the goal post was there to stop the shot. Wichita had a 1-1 opportunity with Nick Nardella cherry-picking on the blue line and had a solo opportunity with Mitchell Gibson, but the shot went wide.
The quick-paced game continued with little stoppages and intensified as the clock wound down.
In the second period, Swoyer clocked his first goal wearing the Stingrays sweater. On a 2-1 with Evans next to him, Swoyer took it all the way and hit one top shelf past Warm. Wichita quickly retaliated less than a minute later, with Jake Wahlin lifting one close-range past Gibson to put the Thunder on the board. Jack Adams hit a wrap-around a little over midway through the period, with Tyson Empey credited with the assist, putting South Carolina up 3-1. Ryan Leibold and Michael Stinil scrapped with five minutes left in the period. When Leibold was down, Stinil hit Leibold with a cheap shot after the refs had already interjected, sending Jackson Leppard after Stinil. Stinil was later given a misconduct, roughing, and a fighting major. 23 seconds into the power play, Lukosevicius wasted no time and sent it home for his ninth of the season. Bryce Montgomery heads to the box on a trip, and Austin Magera joins him five seconds later on a delay of game off of the face-off, putting the Thunder on 5-3 for a full 1:55. Mitch Gibson holds down the fort and only two shots are taken the rest of the period.
The Stingrays started the third period off with lots of opportunities in front and with little play stoppage. All of the action was towards the end of the period with Austin Magera lighting the lamp with 2:23 remaining for his 15th on the season. Jarid Lukosevicius quickly followed his lead, scoring with a little over a minute in the period, Lodina and Kielly getting the assist. The goal triggered a full out brawl on the ice, Lukosevicious, Montgomery, and Maass all heavily involved in the swarm. Lukosevicius and Jason Pineo both left with roughing minors. Jackson Leppard wasted no time on the face-off and quickly sniped one to make it 7-1.
The Stingrays will return to home ice to take on the Thunder again on Saturday and Sunday!
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