NORTH CHARLESTON, SC. – The South Carolina Stingrays (7-6-2-0) defeated the Trois-Rivières Lions (11-5-0-0) 6-2 on Wednesday night. Garin Bjorklund stopped 23 of 25 shots in the victory.
Patrick Harper opened the scoring with a highlight reel goal 7:53 into the first period. Harper stickhandled around Trois-Rivières defenseman Christopher Ortiz and roofed the puck over the blocker of Trois-Rivières goaltender Zachary Èmond.
Jon McDonald doubled the Stingrays’ lead with the first goal of his pro hockey career. McDonald fired a shot through traffic that snuck past Èmond to make it 2-0.
3:25 into the second period, Benton Maass made it 3-0 with a wrist shot from the right side that beat Èmond clean.
Jack Adams scored on a 5-on-3 power play to quadruple the Stingrays lead. He knocked in the rebound off a Connor Moore one-timer.
Harper added a power play goal just under four minutes later to make it 5-0. Nick Leivermann dished the puck to Kameron Kielly at the top of the right circle. Kielly fed it cross-ice for Harper who deposited the puck into the open net for his team-leading third power play goal.
1:22 into the third period, Jakov Novak got Trois-Rivières on the board. Novak scored on the power play on a one-timer from the right circle.
Kevin O’Neil restored the four-goal lead with his sixth goal of the season. He beat Èmond with a wrist shot over the blocker on a 2-on-1.
Trois-Rivières added a late tally from Justin Ducharme to make it a 6-2 final.
The Stingrays return to action on Friday night at the North Charleston Coliseum. They will take on the Savannah Ghost Pirates at 7:05 pm.
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