North Charleston, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays opened up their best of five game series against the Gwinnett Gladiators with a 5-2 win which featured two goals by Travis Morin, and a strong effort by Davis Parley in net, at the North Charleston Coliseum.
“I liked a lot of the things that we did out there tonight,” said Head Coach Jared Bednar. “The pace of the game was very different from the last series, but the guys came out with a lot of energy tonight.”
It was a back and forth first period that saw South Carolina come back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1. After falling down early on Jim Jackson’s third goal of the post season, Travis Morin got his second tally of the playoffs from Scott Romfo, just :60 seconds later, at 3:39. Once again, the Rays trailed by one, but this time Pierre-Luc O’Brien tied things up at 11:34 with his first of the playoffs from Matt Smith and Nate Kiser to make it 2-2 after one period.
The second period was much more close to the vest, and was skated scoreless for the overwhelming majority of the period. It wasn’t until the final second that Morin got his second goal of the game, and gave South Carolina their first lead of the game. The goal came at 19:59 from Chris Chaput and Sean Collins giving the Rays a 3-2 lead after two periods of play.
In the third period the Rays salted the game away with goals by Chaput and Marty Guerin. Chaput got his second goal of the playoffs at 3:57 from Collins and Rory Rawlyk, tipping in Collins shot from the point. The lead would become three goals when Guerin got his team leading fifth goal of the post season from Trent Campbell and Stephen Werner at 16:01. The goal made the lead 5-2, the eventual final.
The winning goaltender was Davis Parley who stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced. The losing goaltender was Craig Kowalski who stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced. The Rays went 0-6 on the power play while killing off three of the four short handed situations they faced.
The Rays will play game two of their best of five game series against the Gladiators tomorrow night at 7:05 at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Don’t miss all the fast-paced, hard-hitting action! Individual tickets can be purchased at the North Charleston Coliseum box office, by calling Ticketmaster at (843) 554-6060 and online at www.ticketmaster.com.
Full and partial season tickets are available by calling (843) 744-2248 or by visiting online at www.stingrayshockey.com. Stingrays Hockey – A Whole Lot Cooler!
