North Charleston, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays came back from a 3-1 deficit in the first period, but couldn’t overtake the Charlotte Checkers as they fell by a score of 7-4 at the North Charleston Coliseum.
“It felt like we lost the game twice,” said Head Coach Jared Bednar. “After coming back and tying the game up at four, you expect to get at least a point for your effort.”
The first period started with an offensive onslaught, four goals scored in the first eight minutes of play. Brad Ralph started things early for the Charlotte Checkers, at 2:46, with his second goal in just his fourth game with the Checkers. Charlotte would strike again just under two minutes later when Matthew Ford scored his team leading 14th goal, on the power play. The Stingrays would answer quickly on a Michael Dubuc tip in of a Pierre-Luc O’Brien shot to get his 18th goal of the year. The goal came at 5:13 from Dubuc, with assists going to O’Brien and newcomer Mike Curry. The Checkers would extend the lead to two once again by taking a 3-1 lead on a Julien Brouillette goal, his fifth of the year.
The second period felt eerily similar to the first period but with much better results for the Rays. After dominating the first five minutes of play, newcomer Spencer Carbery got his first goal as a member of the Stingrays, his sixth overall, to make it a 3-2 game. The goal came at 7:12 and was assisted by Scott Romfo and Brad Farynuk. After Mike Bayrack and the Checkers once again made it a two goal lead, the Stingrays’ power play took over. Jeff Corey got his tenth goal of the year, at 11:12 of the period, on a back door play from Travis Morin to once again cut the lead to one. The goal was assisted by Morin and Maxime Lacroix and made the score 4-3. The Rays would tie things up at 17:26, once again with the man advantage, on a Nate Kiser bomb from the blue line that found its way past Jeff Jakaitis. The goal was Kiser’s third of the year and was assisted by Morin and Farynuk.
After getting the majority of the chances in the third period, the Stingrays fell behind again, when Mike Taylor of the Checker’s put one past Ian Vigier, in what ended up being the game winning goal. They would add on two more, Ralph on the power play and Michele Leveille on the empty net, to make it a 7-4 game, the eventual final.
The winning goaltender was Jakaitis who stopped 36 of the 40 shots he faced. The losing goaltender was Vigier who stopped 20 of the 26 shots he faced. The Rays went 2-8 on the power play while killing off five of the seven short handed situations they faced.
The Rays will be back in action on Thursday night when they travel to Duluth, GA to take on the Gwinnett Gladiators. Game time will be at 7:35 P.M. You can hear the game live on REAL 1340 starting with the Benitos pre-game show beginning at 7:20.
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!
Charlotte Checkers 7 at South Carolina Stingrays 4 - Status: Final
Jan 6, 2009 - North Charleston Coliseum
1st Period
Scoring - 1. Charlotte, B. Ralph (2) (M. Bayrack, M. Ford) 2:46
2. Charlotte, M. Ford (14) (M. Bayrack, E. Graham) 4:48 PP
3. South Carolina, M. Dubuc (18) (P. O'Brien, M. Curry) 5:13
4. Charlotte, J. Brouillette (5) (M. Ford, K. Smith) 7:50
Penalties - S. Carbery Sc (interference - minor 56.2) 3:49, C. Bernier Chr (fighting - major 47.13) 7:51, T. Maxwell Sc (fighting - major 47.13) 7:51, E. Graham Chr (elbowing - minor 46.2) 9:47, M. Scherer Sc (roughing - minor 51.2) 9:51, K. Smith Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 14:35, C. Murray Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 15:51, B. Farynuk Sc (holding - minor 54.2) 16:47, M. Lacroix Sc (boarding - minor 42.2) 18:05
2nd Period
Scoring - 5. South Carolina, S. Carbery (6) (S. Romfo, T. Maxwell) 7:12
6. Charlotte, M. Bayrack (7) (B. Ralph, J. Brouillette) 7:58
7. South Carolina, J. Corey (10) (T. Morin, M. Lacroix) 11:12 PP
8. South Carolina, N. Kiser (3) (T. Morin, B. Farynuk) 17:26 PP
Penalties - E. Graham Chr (interference - minor 56.2) 10:49, K. Smith Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 13:54, J. Brouillette Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 15:29, C. Murray Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 18:14, T. Morin Sc (slashing - minor 61.2) 20:00
3rd Period
Scoring - 9. Charlotte, M. Taylor (8) (C. Bernier) 5:54
10. Charlotte, B. Ralph (3) (C. Murray, R. Hillier) 7:24 PP
11. Charlotte, M. Leveille (6) 19:05 EN
Penalties - B. Farynuk Sc (interference on the goalkeeper - minor 69.2) 6:52, C. Bernier Chr (fighting - major 47.13) 7:25, T. Maxwell Sc (fighting - major 47.13) 7:25, E. Graham Chr (tripping - minor 57.2) 10:21, S. Romfo Sc (elbowing - minor 46.2) 15:28
