NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays defeated the Orlando Solar Bears 5-4 in overtime on Saturday night. Jarid Lukosevicius scored the overtime winner, and Garin Bjorklund stopped 14 of 18 shots in the victory.
Austin Magera opened the scoring for the Rays 3:47 into the opening period. Magera collected a feed from Lukosevicius off the rush and beat Orlando goaltender Colten Ellis five-hole with a wrist shot.
Garet Hunt made it 2-0 with his first goal as a Stingray. With the Stingrays shorthanded, the South Carolina captain raced after a lost puck and fired a shot over the blocker of Ellis to send the home crowd into a frenzy.
Wilkins made it 3-0 with his team-leading 16th goal of the season. He one-timed a shot in the slot that got blocked, but Wilkins followed up with another shot and beat Ellis clean to extend the Stingray lead.
Mitchell Hoelscher and Alex Frye scored two quick goals in the opening two minutes of the second period to pull Orlando within one.
Jackson Leppard put the Stingrays back up by two when he beat Ellis five-hole on the power play.
Orlando tied it up at four thanks to two quick goals by Jayden Dureau at the end of the second period.
The Stingrays outshot Orlando 16-4 in the final period, but Ellis made several big saves to keep the score tied.
Fifty-seven seconds into overtime, Lukosevicius ended the game with his third game-winning goal of the season. Wilkins fed the puck to Lukosevicius off the rush, and Lukosevicius beat Ellis's glove side to secure the victory for South Carolina.
The Stingrays are back in action tomorrow afternoon against the Jacksonville Icemen. Puck drop is set for 3:05 pm.
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