NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays dropped a 3-2 decision to the South Division-leading Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Michael Kim and Jarid Lukosevicius scored for the Rays, and Mitchell Gibson stopped 11 of 14 shots.
Jordan Timmons opened the scoring for the Swamp Rabbits 5:17 into the first period. He stuffed a wraparound past Gibson for his first goal of the season.
Nick Prkusic doubled the Greenville lead when he buried a shot from the slot with 1:31 to go in the opening period. The Rays trailed 2-0 after one period despite outshooting the Swamp Rabbits 12-7 in the opening frame.
Kim cut the Stingray deficit in half when he fired a shot from the left point that snuck past Greenville goaltender Ryan Bednard. The goal was Kim’s fourth of the season.
Joe Leahy made it 3-1 Swamp Rabbits less than 3 minutes into the third period when he one-timed a cross-ice feed from Brannon McManus into the top right corner.
The Stingrays pulled Gibson for an extra attacker with just under three minutes to go, and Lukosevicius pulled the Rays within one with a one-timer from the top of the left circle. That was as close as the Stingrays would get, and the Swamp Rabbits held on to win 3-2.
The Rays return to the ice tomorrow night against the Atlanta Gladiators. The puck drops at 7 pm at Gas South Arena.