South Carolina Stingrays

Stingrays Week 21 Recap: Outside Looking In

(via the Stingrays)

With 11 games remaining in the regular season, the South Carolina Stingrays sit one point out of the eighth and final playoff spot. Of those 11 games, five come against teams in the playoff picture.

Last weekend, the conference-leading Florida Everblades visited North Charleston for the final time. It took four unanswered goals on Sunday, but the Everblades escaped with one win of the two games. South Carolina finishes the season series 5-5-0-0, with two wins coming in overtime.

Making his fourth and fifth consecutive starts this weekend, Parker Milner stopped 50 of 55 shots over the two games. Adam Carlson has not played since the third game of the Rapid City series two weeks ago. Steven Summerhays was released at the trade deadline, joining Greenville the next day.

Also on Deadline Day, the Stingrays traded defenseman Alex Brooks (1-11–12 in 32 games) to Missouri for future considerations. Completing a November trade for Daniel New, Florida sent defenseman Chase Golightly to South Carolina, who then flipped him to Reading for future considerations.

The Stingrays and Everblades combined for 58 penalty minutes on Saturday, par for the course when these teams meet. Two goals from Rob Flick were enough for the win on Pink in the Rink night.

While the Stingrays were without Trevor Gillies for both games, the Everblades had Curt Gogol. Gogol made no efforts at friendship, twice sparring with Marcus Perrier. Neither tussle went down as a fight, but one netted both double minors for roughing, and the other time sent both away for a 10-minute misconduct.

Stephen MacAulay scored late in the third for Florida, but that would be all past Milner. A happy crowd went home with a win, and some with the special jerseys auctioned off after the game.

All proceeds from the auction went to benefit Share Our Suzy. Top-sellers include both Milner and Carlson ($950 each), recently-traded Colton Saucerman ($900), Steve Weinstein ($1,000), all-star Steven McParland ($1,050), defenseman Wade Epp ($1,300), Flick ($1,700), and Gillies ($1,800).

With six of the game’s seven goals coming on the power play, Florida got the final one midway through the third, completing a 4-3 comeback. The Everblades sit atop the conference with a seven-point cushion between them and Reading.

John Parker got the underwear flying with a tap-in goal early in the first period. The packaged underwear got donated to the Carolina Youth Development Center. One fan, as captured by the Stingrays’ Snapchat, threw a box of tampons with the inscription “property of Curt Gogol” on the front.

https://twitter.com/Max_Wolpoff/status/841012727040618496

McParland put up his 18th of the season later in the first. Olivier Archambault, playing his first games since an injury a few weeks ago, scored in the second for his third point on the night. Archambault’s goal came on a two-minute five-on-three after John McCarron (roughing) and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (holding) got whistled at the same time.

Marcus Perrier and Dalton Smith scrapped late in the second after roughing and tripping each other all period. John McCarron scored on one of those Perrier minors, following himself up a minute later with help from Gogol.

Scott Tanski’s carry-over boarding minor resulted in the tying goal, the third straight for McCarron.

Flick (boarding) and McParland (kneeing) got simultaneous whistles, leading to Stepehn MacAulay getting the Everblades their only lead of the contest.

NEXT WEEK

Just one game on the docket this week for South Carolina, and it is Saturday night against Greenville. The Rays hold two games in hand on the Swamp Rabbits, but sit eight points behind them in the playoff race.

Dog owners are encouraged to bring their best friend to the game, part of the Pucks and Paws night presented by the Charleston Animal Society.

CURRENT STANDING

5th South Division, 9th Eastern Conference, 32-26-2-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL), 67 points, one point behind Cincinnati (68), two points behind Orlando (69), five points behind Adirondack (72)

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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