South Carolina Stingrays

Stingrays Fall to Monarchs, In a 2-0 Hole

South Carolina fell into a familiar problem tonight: a multi-goal hole to the Manchester Monarchs. This time, they came close to tying the game.

Following the 4-3 win for the visitors, Manchester is now up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals against South Carolina.

Game three, the final one at the North Charleston Coliseum, comes Monday night. The series will shift to the Southern New Hampshire University Arena for the remainder of the series.

Quentin Shore had a goal and an assist, while Matt Leitner set up two goals for Manchester. Rob Flick fired nine shots on net, coming up with a goal and an assist.

Stingrays head coach Ryan Warsofsky juggled the lines prior to tonight’s game. Joe Devin, normally on the wing with Kelly Zajac and Olivier Archambault, switched to center between Steven McParland and John Parker. Scott Tanski also slotted into the lineup with Trevor Gillies coming out.

The offense generated chances upon chances, but Sam Brittain stood in everyone’s way.

Zac Lynch broke up an early run of play for the Stingrays with a goal. Danny Federico could not get his stick on Lynch’s, and Milner was caught cheating toward the middle to play the pass.

Quentin Shore followed suit, finishing a rebound off Thomas Schemitsch’s shot. Shore got to the puck before Milner could track the rebound through the traffic in front of him.

The Stingrays led in shots on goal 16-5 after the first period, but Sam Brittain kept South Carolina off the scoreboard.

Craig Wyszomirski finished the trifecta of goals for Manchester, then Marcus Perrier finally put one by Brittain. With plenty of traffic in front, Perrier let one free from the top of the left circle for his first of the playoffs.

Kevin Morris restored the three-goal lead early in the third period.

Parker Milner stopped 21 of 25 shots. He had one more save than the Stingrays had shots in the third period.

Flick put up his eighth of the playoffs by depositing a shot that was already behind Brittain after Derek Arnold put a shot through his arm and body. The puck lay in the crease for Flick to score.

Stingrays captain Joe Devin scored on a similar set-up a few minutes later on the power-play for his third of the playoffs. Andrew Cherniwchan caught enough of a puck to get it to roll to Flick in front of the net. Flick banged the puck of Brittain’s pads, and Devin crashed in before Brittain could reach his stick over to stop him.

The Stingrays shot nine more times at the net, but Brittain came up strong again for the visitors from New Hampshire.

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.

Related Articles

Check Also
Close
Back to top button