South Carolina Stingrays

Stingrays Drop Third Straight, Series Tied 3-3

Vin Duffy, via the Stingrays

Hold the celebration, game 7 is necessary after all. Despite once holding a 3-0 series lead and even a 2-0 lead to start Game 6 on Tuesday, the South Carolina Stingrays will play game 7 after losing 5-4 in overtime. The win tonight means Toledo is the first team in ECHL history to play three game 7s throughout one playoff campaign.

Wayne Simpson began by adding point 31 of the playoffs on his goal to make it 1-0. Captain Andrew Rowe added another to make it 2-0. After that, it was all Toledo. Three unanswered goals from the Walleye put the Stingrays in a bad spot. Joe Devin would tie it, only to have the lead reclaimed by Toledo 63 seconds later on a goal by Alden Hirschfeld. Devin got his second goal to start the third, but the lead goal eluded everybody. That didn’t stop the Toledo media from selecting the second and third stars before the game ended.

Simpson had an amazing chance somehow stay out of the net early in OT, but it was not enough as Tyler Barnes would beat Jeff Jakaitis to force game 7.

Jakaitis made 29 saves on 34 shots while his counterpart Neil Conway had 28 saves on 32 shots. Conway controlled his rebounds better than previous games, again laying the foundation for Toledo to build on. Stingrays defensemen managed to silence Martin Frk, but others like Joel Chouinard (3 assists) and Scott Czarnowczan (2 assists)filled the void.

An inability to hold leads doomed both teams to another overtime game. The Stingrays lost their early two-goal lead and the Walleye could not maintain their two separate two-goal leads. Game 7 will be Wednesday night, 7:35 PM from the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. If either team wants to end this series in anything but overtime, they have to hold the leads they establish.

Max Wolpoff

Churchill High School graduate (2015) and current Boston University journalism student. Follow me on Twitter (@Max_Wolpoff) for game-day tweets or my random musings about being a college student.

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