Jonathan Charbonneau broke a third period deadlock with his second goal in as many days and Logan Thompson stopped 22 shots as the South Carolina Stingrays (27-5-3-1) picked up a 2-1 win on the road over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (18-19-1-1) on Sunday afternoon at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Defenseman Tom Parisi also scored in the victory for South Carolina, while forwards Andrew Cherniwchan and Mitch Vanderlaan each added assists.
Thompson improved to 15-3-1 on the season and 10-1-1 in his last 12 games. He also allowed one goal or less for the seventh consecutive start and lowered his league-leading goals-against average to 1.90 while strengthening his ECHL-high save percentage to 0.937.
The Swamp Rabbits took an early 1-0 lead at 6:13 of the first period on a goal by forward Nathan Perkovich, which was the lone tally of the opening frame.
Parisi evened the score for SC at 6:23 of the second with his sixth goal of the season off a feed from Cherniwchan on the rush.
The Stingrays went on to outshoot Greenville 20-2 in the middle frame but were only able to light the lamp once in the period and remained in a 1-1 deadlock as the third began.
Charbonneau gave South Carolina the lead at 5:07 of the final period, scoring after he and Vanderlaan secured a turnover with pressure on the Swamp Rabbits defense. Vanderlaan grabbing the loose puck and fed Charbonneau right in front of the net for a tap-in goal to make it 2-1.
The Rays held off any late chances by Greenville in the closing minutes and earned their league-best 27th victory to extend their gap over the Florida Everblades for first place in the South Division to 10 points.
Neither team scored on the power play in the game, with Greenville finishing 0-for-3 and South Carolina ending at 0-for-4 on the man-advantage. The Stingrays had a final shots-on-goal advantage of 42-23, while goaltender Jeremy Helvig took the loss despite making 40 saves.
NEXT GAMEThe Stingrays are back in action on Wednesday night in Jacksonville when they take on the Icemen at 7 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Arena. South Carolina will then return home to the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday night for another matchup with Jacksonville at 7:05.
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