Stingrays Fall in Late Game Heartbreaker

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Toledo’s Brady Tomlaknetted the game-winner with only 13 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Toledo Walleye (14-6-0-1) over the South Carolina Stingrays (9-10-2-0) by a final score of 2-1 on Friday night. This was the only battle between the two teams this season at the North Charleston Coliseum.

Playing with only five defensemen already, Victor Hadfield went down late in the first, prompting forward Nate Pionk back to the blueline. Even with a depleted defensive core, the Stingrays forced a lot of perimeter shots to help their netminder.

Late in the second period, Toledo opened the scoring as Brett Boeing finished a two-on-one breakaway to take a 1-0 lead with 38 seconds left. John Albert led the rush on a breakout pass from Adam Parsells. Hunter Shepard made the initial stop, but there was no backside help to tie up Boeing en route to his third goal of the season.

At the 6:10 mark of the second period, Jake Coleman found himself on the board, lifting one over Toledo’s Billy Christopolous.Lawton Courtnall and Ben Holmstrom connected behind the net where Holmstrom sauced a perfect puck to Coleman in front of the net to knuckle one past for his first goal of the season.

With under five minutes remaining, Captain Andrew Cherniwchan received a hit up high and expressed his frustration, prompting a misconduct and sending him to the locker room for the remainder of the contest. Taking advantage of the missing players, Tomlak picked up a rebound from Randy Gazzola and slid one through the five-hole of Shepard for the game-winner.

Shepard stood on his head, making 39 stops in the loss while former Stingray Christopolous halted 32 of his own for the victory.

The Stingrays return to action on Saturday, December 18th as they take on the Jacksonville Icemen for the first of two straight games at the North Charleston Coliseum beginning at 6:05 p.m. It’s Wizard Night presented by Rudd Heating, Plumbing, and Air. Join us for a magical evening where players compete for the coveted House Cup. Fans can vote on which house will be named champion for a chance to win some prizes.

Single game tickets for all your Stingrays home games for the upcoming 2021-22 home season are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

Save money with group tickets! For more information or to purchase, contact the Stingrays by phone at 843-744-2248.

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--StingraysHockey.com--