Rays Battle Back To Earn 4-2 Win In Jacksonville

Ully Leads Offense with 4-Point Night, Weis Scores Twice in SC Victory

By: Stingrays Media

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Cole Ully factored in on all the South Carolina Stingrays (27-21-10-3) goals with two tallies and two assists to lead the team’s offense and Matthew Weis scored twice in a 4-2 win over the Jacksonville Icemen (29-24-3-3) on Saturday night at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Ully’s 4-point game was his fourth of the season for the Rays, while Weis’ tallies extended his league-high point streak to 11 games in the team’s victory. Goaltender Alex Dubeau earned the win in between the pipes with 23 saves for his club.

With the win, South Carolina moved back ahead of Jacksonville in the Eastern Conference standings to fifth place with a points percentage of 0.549. Nine games remain on the Rays’ 2020-21 schedule, with four of them coming against the fourth place Orlando Solar Bears.

After SC was unsuccessful on two early power play opportunities at the start of the game that included a short 5-on-3 advantage, the Rays took an early lead with an even strength goal by Ully at 5:57. His strike came with a lone assist by linemate Max Novak and made it 1-0 in favor of SC.

Minutes later, Weis scored his first of the night from Ully and Novak at 9:39 to increase the Stingrays’ early advantage to 2-0.

Before the end of the opening period, Jacksonville’s Nick Saracino got his team on the board and cut the lead to 2-1 before the first intermission with a strike at 14:17.

Ully netted the only goal of the middle frame at 13:36 off a face-off in the Icemen zone during an SC power play opportunity. The Calgary, Alberta native registered his 20th goal of the season from defender Tyler Nanne and forward Brett Supinski to make it 3-1 SC.

The Icemen got one closer with a power play goal of their own at 6:21 of the third when Erik Bradford found the back of the net to cut the lead down to 3-2.

But after back-to-back penalties to the Icemen put the Rays on another 5-on-3 power play, Weis converted for his second strike of the game on a wrist shot from the top of the offensive zone. Weis’ eighth goal of the year came from Nanne and Ully at 9:54 and gave SC some much-needed insurance late in the game.

Jacksonville pulled goaltender Kyle Keyser with just over four minutes remaining in the game in a late comeback attempt, but the Rays defense kept the chances to a minimum for the Icemen and Dubeau shut down any opportunities on net to secure the win.

South Carolina finished 2-for-4 on the man-advantage, while Jacksonville ended at 1-for-5. Keyser suffered the loss for the Icemen, stopping 22 shots for his team in defeat. The Rays had a slim edge in shots-on-goal, 26-25, on the night.

Next week SC returns to action when they travel to Orlando for a 3-in-3 series against the Solar Bears beginning Friday night at 7 p.m. The Stingrays will return to the North Charleston Coliseum on Wednesday, May 26 to host the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at 7:05 p.m.

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