Stingrays Use Hot Start to Sink Mariners

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays (37-20-4-1) had seven different goal scorers as they defeated the Maine Mariners (35-24-2-1) by a final score of 7-3 on Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.

BOX SCORE

Justin Florek put the Stingrays ahead 42 seconds into the opening stanza on his 17th goal of the year. Chaz Reddekopp sent a shot toward the net that Florek deflected past Michael DiPietro for the 1-0 advantage.

South Carolina doubled the lead on Max Humitz’s fourth goal in three games since joining the Stingrays. Humitz collected a rebound on his own shot and lifted it past DiPietro for the 2-0 lead.

Josh Wilkins expanded the lead on his 19th tuck of the season. Wilkins received a pass from Robbie Stucker and squared up with the net before firing a shot past DiPietro for the 3-goal advantage.

The Stingrays added a fourth goal from Austin Magera with 5:01 left in the first period that chased DiPietro from the game. Tic-tac-toe passing from Kevin O’Neil and Anthony Del Gaizo concluded with Magera slamming a shot past the Maine netminder for the 4-0 lead.

Lawton Courtnall completed the scoring in the first 20 minutes as he deflected a one-timer from Michael Kim to beat new goaltender, François Brassard, for the 5-0 advantage at the end of the first period.

Bear Hughes opened the second period by scoring at the 6:27 mark with his team-leading 22nd goal of the year. Humitz fed Hughes in the slot where the rookie wristed a shot past Brassard for the 6-0 lead.

Maine got on the board at the 8:52 mark of the middle frame as Andrew Peski sent a one-timer over the right shoulder of Tyler Wall. Peski set up and lifted a shot past Wall on the 5-on-3 man advantage.

Peski added his second of the game with 3:24 remaining in the second period as he repeated his previous tally on another 5-on-3 power play. Peski one-timed a shot over the left shoulder of the Stingrays' netminder to pull within four goals at the end of two periods.

Ryan Scarfo regained the Stingrays’ five-goal advantage as he netted his 10th goal of the year at the 1:28 mark of the third frame. Matt Anderson gained an edge on the defender and fed Scarfo for the redirection as he crashed the net for the 7-2 lead.

The Mariners completed the scoring just over two minutes later as Cam Askew slid a shorthanded goal between the legs of Wall on a breakaway for the 7-3 final.

The Stingrays return to the North Charleston Coliseum to host the Maine Mariners for the weekend finale tomorrow, March 26th, at 3:05 p.m. Join the Stingrays in celebrating 30 seasons of hockey in the Lowcountry as they honor the legends of the past on Alumni Day.

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--StingraysHockey.com--