The South Carolina Stingrays (25-4-3-1) scored five straight goals and rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Atlanta Gladiators (14-18-0-0) on Tuesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum behind 37 saves for goaltender Logan Thompson.
Five different scorers struck for the Rays in the win and five skaters had multi-point nights including captain Andrew Cherniwchan, Mark Cooper and Dylan Steman, who each picked up a goal and an assist. Forward Max Novak and defender Tom Parisi also each had two helpers.
Thompson lowered his goals-against average to 2.01 this season in the victory, which was his 13th of the year. His save percentage of 0.932 now leads the ECHL.
Atlanta got out to a quick start, scoring their only goal of the game 29 seconds into the first period when Alexey Solovyev beat Thompson to make it 1-0.
South Carolina responded to tie the game at 1-1 when Jonathan Charbonneau picked up the puck behind the Atlanta defense and went in on a breakaway to beat Atlanta netminder Chris Nell for his fifth goal of the season at 15:51 of the first. Assists on the play went to Parisi and Cam Askew.
Cooper gave the Rays the lead for good just 30 seconds into the second period, netting a power play goal from Novak and Cherniwchan to make it 2-1.
Then in the third period, it was Cherniwchan who scored 30 seconds in from Steman and Novak on a loose puck in front of the Atlanta net to push the SC lead out to 3-1.
Later in the frame, Brady Fleurent struck against his former team for his first goal of the season at 13:16 from Parisi and Steman knocked home a pass from Cooper and Kristofers Bindulis at 14:46 to finish the scoring late in the game.
South Carolina finished with a 1-for-2 mark on the power play and held Atlanta off the board on the man-advantage at 0-for-3. Nell ended the contest with 28 saves in a losing effort for the Glads. Atlanta outshot the Stingrays 38-33 in the game.
NEXT GAMEThe Stingrays host the Brampton Beast at the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday night at 7:05 p.m.
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