NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays (0-1-0-0) dropped a 6-3 decision to the Orlando Solar Bears (1-0-0-1) in front of a crowd of 6,577 at the North Charleston Coliseum on Opening Night. The Stingrays outshot Orlando 41 to 29 but struggled to solve Orlando goaltender Brandon Halverson.
Forward Tanner Dickenson opened the scoring for the Solar Bears 2:36 into the game with a wrist shot from the high slot. At the 7:17 mark, Orlando extended their lead with a power play goal by Steven Jandric.
Rookie forward Austin Magera picked the short side shelf to cut the deficit to one 10:37 into the first period.
In the second period, each team scored two goals. In his first professional hockey game, Stingrays forward Jack Adams scored twice, including a deflection on a shot from the point from Cole Fraser. Luke Boka and Jimmy Mazza also scored for Orlando in the middle frame.
The Solar Bears pulled away with two goals from Jandric and Chris Harpur in the third period. Goaltender Garin Bjorklund made 23 stops in the loss.
The Stingrays return to action on Thursday, October 26 to begin a three-game road swing against the Newfoundland Growlers. Puck drop on Thursday is set for 5:30 EST at Mary Brown’s Centre.
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