NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Stingrays ended the weekend victorious, defeating the Florida Everblades 3-2 on Sunday afternoon. Mitchell Gibson made 18 saves on 20 shots in the win. Three different Stingrays tallied goals in the victory, including two defensemen.
Ethan Strang put the Stingrays on the board 7:56 into the game. Strang connected with a rebound that came off a shot by Ivan Lodnia to put South Carolina up 1-0. Austin Magara recorded the secondary assist on the game’s first goal.
South Carolina extended its lead to 2-0 early in the second period when Connor Moore tallied his 100th career point. Moore’s tally came off an impressive effort that saw him stick handle the puck through center ice and into the offensive zone, where he split the Everblades’ defenders and roofed the puck into the net’s top corner. Lodnia and Nick Leivermann assisted on the goal.
Less than a minute later, the Everblades scored their first goal off a breakaway opportunity for Kieran Craig, who made it a 2-1 game.
Florida managed to tie things up before the end of the second period at 6:32. Sean Josling tallied his team-leading fifth power-play goal of the year with a wrist shot from the right circle.
The lone goal of the third period came from Jon McDonald, who buried his third goal of the season off of a give-and-go with Ian Mackey. McDonald slapped the puck into the top right corner to give South Carolina a lead they would not relinquish.
The Stingrays hung on to earn their fifth victory against Florida this season. They are now four points ahead of the Everblades in the South Division standings. The Stingrays return to action on Saturday night in Savannah for a 7:00 pm matchup against the Ghost Pirates.