This past weekend (February 8th-February 11th), the Savannah Ghost Pirates played three home games back-to-back. They played the South Carolina Stingrays Thursday and Saturday and the Cincinnati Cyclones on Friday. South Carolina and Cincinnati are both ranked #3 in their divisions. Given that the Ghost Pirates are last in their division by roughly 15 points, it is evident that these three games against these two strong teams would be hard. However, with the resilience that we’ve seen from Savannah this inaugural season, there was no doubt that they’d give their best.
In their first game of the weekend facing South Carolina, the Ghost Pirates managed to snag their first-ever shutout in their team’s history. The game favored Savannah with a final score of 5-0. The five goals were scored by Pat Guay (12), who scored 2, Cole Stallard (17), Vincent Marleau (43), and Alex Swetlikoff (13). The first three goals were added in the first period, neither team scored in the second, and Marleau and Swetlikoff scored in the third.
In terms of personal goals for the Ghost Pirates players this weekend, both Guay and Swetlikoff got their 12th goals of the season, and Stallard got his 11th. Marleau added his 18th by the end of Saturday’s game.
Savannah’s 22-year-old goaltender Isaiah Saville (31) gets enormous credit for the shutout as he prevented all 42 South Carolina shots. Friday night, Jordan Papirny (33) started in goal but got switched out for Saville after the Cyclones raised their score to 5-0 with 10:10 remaining in the second. While Saville was in goal, he only allowed one more Cincinnati shot in the net. On Saturday, as the first period ended, a very controversial event occurred, resulting in an injury to Saville. During a play, whether intentional or not, SC player Johnny Evans (7) managed to get the blade of his stick into Saville’s mask, resulting in an eye or facial injury that prevented Saville from returning to the game or even the bench.
The incident regarding Saville’s injury is responsible for the first fight of the weekend with Darian Skeoch (SGP 76) and Chase Stewart (SC 44). Skeoch is well-known for being a great fighter and defender of his teammates in the South Division of the ECHL. During Savannah’s home game against the Jacksonville Icemen on December 31, 2022, Ghost Pirate player Marshall Moise (9) took a devastating check into the boards, knocking him unconscious and giving him a severe concussion. Not too long after Moise was taken off the ice to a hospital, Skeoch fought the player who took out his teammate. Skeoch’s not one who loses a fight, as he’s usually the last to hit the ice in every fight he’s been in. The 6’5, 225 lb defender now has 83 PIM in the 30 games he’s played with Savannah.
This past weekend in Savannah did not disappoint its locals. Though the Ghost Pirates lost 2 out of 3 of their back-to-back-to-back games, they played with excellent skill, energy, strategies, shots, and saves all weekend. They played two highly-ranked teams and shut out one of them, making franchise history happen.
