North Charleston, SC –The South Carolina Stingrays (9-6-1-3) fell to the Johnstown Chiefs (4-8-3-0) 7-1 Sunday night in the final game of a three-in-three weekend at North Charleston Coliseum. Chiefs defenseman R.J. Anderson recorded a hat trick and had a game-high five points in the victory.
Box Score
The Stingrays lit the lamp first as Rob Ricci buried his sixth of the season from Matt Scherer and Johann Kroll at 6:01 of the first period. Johnstown responded with a power-play tally from Connor Shields at 9:51 from Chris Zarb and former Stingray Jarrett Konkle. The Chiefs took a 2-1 lead at 10:27 off of a turnover from Stingrays goaltender Braden Holtby. Holby rushed out of the net to play a Johnstown dump-in, but partially fanned on a breakout pass and turned it over to Mike Bartlett who fired it into the empty net. Johnstown took a two-goal lead less than two minutes later off a snap shot from forward Tory Schwab at 12:09. R.J. Anderson and Konkle recorded assists on Schwab’s fourth of the season.
Johnstown carried the scoring into second period as Anderson found the twine at 2:27 from Jim McKenzie for his first professional goal. The Chiefs went up 5-1 at 8:51 on a breakaway goal from Bryan Marshall beating Holtby low blocker-side. Holtby was pulled in favor of goaltender Todd Ford after finishing the night making eight saves on 13 shots in 28:51 of play. Anderson scored his second of the game to make it 6-1 at 18:42 from Sean Berkstresser and Michael Couch lifting a shot over the glove of Ford to end the second period scoring. Anderson’s hat trick goal came at 3:11 of the third period from Ryan Menei and Bartlett to complete the game scoring. Ford finished the night stopping 14 of 16 Chiefs shots while Kris Mayotte stopped 28 of 29 Stingrays chances. Johnstown finished 1-for-6 on the power play while the Stingrays ended the night 0-for-6.
The Stingrays hit the road Tuesday, November 24, to Gwinnet to take on the Gladiators at 7:05 p.m. at The Arena at Gwinnett Center. Listen to the game LIVE at www.stingrayshockey.com. The Stingrays return home Saturday, December 5 to battle the Elmira Jackals at 7:05 p.m. at North Charleston Coliseum. Saturday is Tailgate Saturday and Used Car Giveaway Night! Ticket packages and individual tickets are on sale now! Call the Stingrays front office at (843) 744-2248 for more information. For all the latest Stingrays news, visit www.stingrayshockey.com
