Charlotte, NC – The South Carolina Stingrays continued to play strong hockey at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, as they improved to 5-0 against the Checkers this season with a 5-1 win over the Checkers tonight.
“This is certainly something to build off of,” said Head Coach Jared Bednar. “We played much better tonight in the first two periods. I was much happier with the effort tonight.”
The Rays scored early and often in the game, starting in the first period with Jeff Corey getting his sixth goal of the year, his third as a member of the Rays. The goal came at 6:47 and was assisted by Victor Dovgan and Travis Morin. The Rays made it 2-0 when Dovgan got his first goal of the year. The goal came on the power play at 16:13 from Nate Kiser and Corey.
In the second period, the Stingrays picked up where they left off. They got their third goal of the game, their second power play goal of the game, when Zach Tarkir got his second goal of the year. The goal came at 13:46 and was assisted by Brad Farynuk and Corey. It would become 4-0 in the second period on Farynuk’s fifth goal of the year on a centering pass by Trent Campbell. The goal came at 17:20 and was assisted by Campbell and Bryson Busniuk.
In net, Bobby Goepfert came 3:49 away from his second shutout of the year, but Brian Deeth got his second goal of the year to make it a 4-1 game at 16:01 of the period. Not to be outdone, Michael Dubic got his tenth goal of the year from Matt Scherer and Paul Kelly at 19:25, on the power play, to make it a 5-1 game, the eventual final.
The winning goaltender was Goepfert who stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced. He is now 5-0 against the Checkers this year. The losing goaltender was Jeff Jakaitis who stopped 29 of the 34 shots he faced. The Rays went 3-7 on the power play while killing off all eight short handed situations they faced.
The Rays will be back in action tomorrow night when they return home for the second half of the home and home against Charlotte. Game time will be at 7:05 P.M. You can hear the game live on ESPN radio 910 the TEAM starting with the Benitos pre-game show beginning at 6:50.
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!
