NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays (1-1-0-0) started their first road trip of the season with a 6-2 victory over the Newfoundland Growlers (3-1-0-0). Three Stingrays players registered multi-point games, and goaltender Garin Bjorklund made 23 stops in the victory.
Forward Austin Magera tallied his second goal of the season 6:59 into the game to put the Rays on the board. Just 24 seconds later, last year’s leading scorer, Josh Wilkins, doubled South Carolina’s lead when he collected a rebound off the end boards and whipped the puck past Newfoundland netminder Vyacheslav Peksa. 10:38 into the opening frame, the Stingrays cashed in on the game’s first power play with a wrist shot from the left circle by Jarid Lukosevicius to make it 3-0.
The Growlers clawed their way back into the game with two goals just over one minute of gameplay apart. With 13 seconds to go in the first period, forward Tate Singleton picked up his first goal of the year when he streaked down the right wing and wired one over the glove of Bjorklund. Growlers forward Grant Cruikshank cut the Newfoundland deficit to one 50 seconds into the second period when he tapped in a goal on an odd-man rush.
Lukosevicius restored the two-goal lead for South Carolina when he tipped in a shot by Stingrays defenseman Benton Maass for his second goal of the game. The Stingrays added two goals in the third period. Stingrays forward Kevin O’Neil made it 5-2 with a wrist shot from the right circle. Maass scored his first goal of the season on a one-timer from the left point to make it 6-2.
The Stingrays are off on Friday before back-to-back tilts against the Growlers over the weekend. Their next game against Newfoundland is Saturday at 5:30 EST at Mary Brown’s Centre.
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