ECHL: South Carolina Stingrays Fall to Savannah Ghost Pirates

The Stingrays returned back to the North Charleston Coliseum after their trip north to visit the Newfoundland Growlers, where they went 2-1 in the historic trip.

Within the first 14 seconds, former Stingray Ryan Scarfo made his presence known by taking down defenseman Cole Fraser. Scarfo was sent to the box for boarding, and Fraser was helped off the ice, only to return midway through the period. Adams quickly followed the penalty and was hauled into the penalty box only five seconds after Scarfo, starting off the first seconds of play with 4-4. The first period remained scoreless, with the Stingrays having double the shots on goals than the Ghost Pirates with 8-4.

The second period started out with a bang. The Ghost Pirates came out swinging against Gibson and finally slipped one past him off the rebound. Sebastian Vidmar tallied his second goal of the season with help from Robbie Fromm-Delorme and Brandon Estes. It didn’t take long for the Stingrays to retaliate, with Jack Adams finding Matt Tugnutt across the ice a minute later to tie the game. Jordan Papirny had no chance of stopping the beautiful shot from Tugnutt.

Mitchell Gibson continued to be a brick wall, fighting off pucks left and right and even from his back. Towards the end of the period, Captain Garet Hunt was called for holding the stick, and South Carolina went on the penalty kill. With five minutes left in the period, Savannah tied it up, Ryan Scarfo and Nolan Valleau finding Simon Pinard outside the faceoff circle.

The third period was full of turnovers from both sides, with the Stingrays having many scoring opportunities in front of the net. Wilkins would finally tie it up with seven minutes remaining in the game on a rebound shot by defensemen Jon McDonald that Papirny could not settle. Savannah couldn’t answer back and regain the lead, sending the Stingrays into overtime.

Connor Moore, Josh Wilkins, and Kevin O’Neil were sent out by Coach Kotyk for the first shift. Moore had a wide open opportunity but broke his stick on the wind up. Brent Pederson would head the other way and be the game-winning goal for the Ghost Pirates after two minutes of play.

The Stingrays head to Atlanta and Orlando this week before returning back to the Coliseum on Friday, still looking for that first home-ice win.