NORTH CHARLESTON, SC. – The South Carolina Stingrays (6-6-2-0) dropped a 4-3 decision to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (13-2-0-0) on Friday night. Mitchell Gibson stopped 28 of 32 shots in the loss.
Greenville doubled South Carolina's shot total in the opening period, but Gibson kept the Stingrays in the game with 14 first-period saves.
South Carolina pulled in front 6:15 into the second period when Austin Magera tallied his fifth goal of the season. Michael Kim fired a shot from the top of the left circle that was kicked out by Greenville goaltender Jacob Ingham, but Magera knocked in the rebound to put the Stingrays up 1-0.
Greenville responded 24 seconds later when LA Grissom one-timed a feed from Nick Prkusic past Gibson. Prkusic put the Swamp Rabbits ahead less than three minutes later. Kevin O'Neil turned the puck over to Greenville's JD Greenway, who fired a shot off Gibson's right pad. Prkusic pounced on the rebound and tapped it into the open net before Gibson had time to react.
South Carolina came out strong to start the third period, but a holding penalty on O'Neil stalled their momentum. It was Greenville's fourth power play of the game. Just as the penalty expired, Greenville's Brannon McManus fired a wrist shot over Gibson's glove to make it 3-1.
Grissom made it 4-1 with a wrist shot through traffic from the left point that Gibson never saw.
Josh Wilkins cut the deficit to two when he knocked in his team-leading seventh goal of the season. Ian Mackey fired a diving shot on goal, and Wilkins banged home the rebound. Mackey picked up his first point of the 2023-24 season with an assist on the goal.
Tyson Empey put the Stingrays within one with 38 seconds to go. He redirected a Kevin O'Neil feed into the top right corner for his sixth goal of the season.
The late push was not enough, and Greenville hung on to win by one goal. The Stingrays are back in action on Wednesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum against the Trois Rivieres Lions. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m.
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