NORTH CHARLESTON, SC—The South Carolina Stingrays lost 6-5 in overtime to the Orlando Solar Bears on Friday night. Mitchell Gibson made 22 saves on 28 shots in the loss.
The Stingrays struck first on a top-shelf Jonny Evans snipe made possible through a feed in front assisted by Austin Magera and Michael Kim. The goal marked Evans' 17th of the year and came in his 100th career ECHL game.
The lead would only last 5 minutes until Alex Frye intercepted a pass attempt from Nick Leivermann and walked in for a breakaway. He fired a shot over Gibson's blocker to even the score. The stalemate continued through the remainder of the period.
The tie wouldn't last long into the second period, as Spencer Meier ripped a shot over Orlando goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick's blocker to put South Carolina back on top. The goal was Meier's first professional tally. A few minutes later, Bryce Montgomery buried a beautiful two-on-one feed from Magera, followed by a Jacob Hudson tally to put the Stingrays up 4-1 with half of the second period left to play. Hudson's tally marked his second point and his first goal with the Stingrays.
To close out the middle period, Ryan Leibold made it 5-1 by capitalizing off a Solar Bears turnover deep in the Orlando zone. The goal marked his 13th goal of the season, bringing the Stingrays into the locker room with a four-goal lead heading into the final frame.
The Solar Bears clawed back into the game with a goal from Tanner Schachle 1:27 into the third period. Schachle buried a centering feed from Kurt Gosselin to cut it to 5-2. Luke Boka made it 5-3 when he tipped in a shot from the point by Gosselin.
Aaron Luchuk cut the game to 5-4 with a shot from the right-wing side that trickled past Gibson. With Orlando's goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Luchuk scored again to tie the game with 19 seconds remaining in the third period.
Alex Frye netted the game-winning goal 4:53 into overtime to secure the victory for Orlando. Frye rushed the puck up ice on a 2-on-1 and buried his second goal of the evening.
The Stingrays are back in action tomorrow at 6:05 pm for a matchup against the Florida Everblades.
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