Helvig Stuns Rays With 48 Saves

Despite putting up 50 shots on goal, the South Carolina Stingrays (11-2-0-0) fell short to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (9-7-0-1) by a score of 5-2 on Tuesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.

BOX SCORE

Forwards Andrew Cherniwchan and Mark Cooper scored goals for the Stingrays in the loss, while goaltender Logan Thompson got the start and turned aside 17 shots. Greenville netminder Jeremy Helvig came up big for the Swamp Rabbits, making 48 saves.

The Swamp Rabbits had the only goal of the opening frame, scoring when Travis Howe put a shot past Thompson to make it 1-0 at 3:01 of the first.

Greenville added to their advantage in the second when Adam Larkin scored just after a power play ended at 2:56 of the middle period.

SC got back within one at 11:39 when Cherniwchan beat goaltender Jeremy Helvig with a wrist shot to cut the deficit to 2-1. The captain’s seventh goal of the season from linemates Cole Ully and Matthew Weis.

Then Cooper evened things up at 2-2 minutes later at 14:41 on a play that was made by Dan DeSalvo. After SC killed a minor penalty to DeSalvo for interference, the forward jumped out of the box and laid a huge hit on a Greenville defenseman. The puck was left free for the taking and Scott Davidson was able to send a quick pass over to Cooper, who had an initial shot stopped by Helvig, but then grabbed his own rebound and scored his sixth goal of the season.

With the first assist, Davidson got his first career professional point in his second game.

Patrick Bajkov put Greenville back in front 3-2 at 8:50 of the third, scoring the only power play goal of the game.

Bajkov added another at 14:58 when he came out of the penalty box and stepped into a breakaway. He beat Thompson with a forehand shot to make it 4-2 in favor of the Swamp Rabbits.

Jake Horton sealed the win for Greenville with an empty net goal in the final minute at 19:28.

Greenville was 1-for-5 on the power play in the game, while South Carolina finished 0-for-6. The Rays had a final shots-on-goal edge of 50-22.

NEXT GAMESouth Carolina hits the road to face the Florida Everblades this weekend at Hertz Arena, beginning Friday at 7:30 p.m.

—The Stingrays return home for five games in December! Tickets for all of South Carolina’s upcoming 2019-20 home contests are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

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