Sports
Stingrays Use Hot Start to Sink Mariners
The South Carolina Stingrays (37-20-4-1) had seven different goal scorers as they defeated the Maine Mariners (35-24-2-1) by a final score of 7-3 on Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Justin Florek put the Stingrays ahead 42 seconds into the opening stanza on his 17th goal of the year. Chaz Reddekopp sent a shot toward the net that Florek deflected past Michael DiPietro for the 1-0 advantage.
South Carolina doubled the lead on Max Humitz’s fourth goal in three games since joining the Stingrays. Humitz collected a rebound on his own shot and lifted it past DiPietro for the 2-0 lead.
Josh Wilkins expanded the lead on his 19th tuck of the season. Wilkins received a pass from Robbie Stucker and squared up with the net before firing a shot past DiPietro for the 3-goal advantage.
The Stingrays added a fourth goal from Austin Magera with 5:01 left in the first period that chased DiPietro from the game. Tic-tac-toe passing from Kevin O’Neil and Anthony Del Gaizo concluded with Magera slamming a shot past the Maine netminder for the 4-0 lead.
Lawton Courtnall completed the scoring in the first 20 minutes as he deflected a one-timer from Michael Kim to beat new goaltender, François Brassard, for the 5-0 advantage at the end of the first period.
Bear Hughes opened the second period by scoring at the 6:27 mark with his team-leading 22nd goal of the year. Humitz fed Hughes in the slot where the rookie wristed a shot past Brassard for the 6-0 lead.
Maine got on the board at the 8:52 mark of the middle frame as Andrew Peski sent a one-timer over the right shoulder of Tyler Wall. Peski set up and lifted a shot past Wall on the 5-on-3 man advantage.
Peski added his second of the game with 3:24 remaining in the second period as he repeated his previous tally on another 5-on-3 power play. Peski one-timed a shot over the left shoulder of the Stingrays’ netminder to pull within four goals at the end of two periods.
Ryan Scarfo regained the Stingrays’ five-goal advantage as he netted his 10th goal of the year at the 1:28 mark of the third frame. Matt Anderson gained an edge on the defender and fed Scarfo for the redirection as he crashed the net for the 7-2 lead.
The Mariners completed the scoring just over two minutes later as Cam Askew slid a shorthanded goal between the legs of Wall on a breakaway for the 7-3 final.
The Stingrays return to the North Charleston Coliseum to host the Maine Mariners for the weekend finale tomorrow, March 26th, at 3:05 pm. Join the Stingrays in celebrating 30 seasons of hockey in the Lowcountry as they honor the legends of the past on Alumni Day.