Milner Blanks Worcester With 33 Saves

Parker Milner helped the South Carolina Stingrays (28-28-5-0) defeat the Worcester Railers (28-23-5-4) by a score of 2-0 Sunday and give his team wins in two of three games on the weekend against North Division opponents with his first shutout of the season at the DCU Center.The former Boston College goaltender returned to Massachusetts and stopped a total of 33 shots to secure two points for South Carolina and keep the Rays in possession of fourth place in the South Division standings. In addition, forwards Tad Kozun (1 goal, 1 assist) and Cam Askew (2 assists) each recorded multi-point games for South Carolina in the victory.Defenseman Ryker Killins gave the Stingrays the early lead with his first professional goal at 9:22 of the first period. The defender picked up the puck just inside the blue line on the left wall and moved all the way to the other side of the ice before wristing a shot to the net that deflected past Worcester goaltender Blake Wojtala to give SC a 1-0 advantage. Assists were credited to both Kozun and Askew on the strike.A scoreless second period saw the two teams move into the third with South Carolina continuing to hold a 1-0 lead. The Railers outshot the Stingrays 12-7 in the final period, but the only goal of the frame was scored by Kozun at 12:48 to give his team some much-needed insurance. Kozun wired a one-timer past Wojtala for his 14th goal of the year that came with assists from Andrew Cherniwchan as well as Askew.Milner held down the final minutes for SC in net, keeping his focus as the Railers had an empty net and an extra attacker on the ice for almost three minutes.Wojtala took the loss in his first professional start, making 23 saves in the contest for Worcester. The Railers had a 33-25 edge in shots on the net in the contest, while both teams were held scoreless on the power play with the Rays holding Worcester to 0-for-4 and they themselves finished 0-for-2.South Carolina will continue their chase for a postseason spot Wednesday night on the road in Georgia when they battle Atlanta in a crucial contest. The Stingrays return to the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday night to begin a home three-in-three weekend starting with a battle against the Norfolk Admirals at 7:05. Tickets are on sale now!Single-game tickets for all games during the 2018-19 season are on sale now at the North Charleston Coliseum Box Office and ticketmaster.com.Groups of 10 or more feature discounted pricing and great benefits! For more information, call the Stingrays front office at 843-744-2248.Photo Credit: Richard LeBlanc