South Carolina Stingrays

Stingrays Win 2-1, Even Series at 2

via the Stingrays

After dropping two of three in Charleston, the Stingrays faced a virtual “must win” in the first of potentially four straight games in Manchester, and managed to tie the series at two with a 2-1 win.

The first period was back and forth, though Manchester outshot the Rays 11-6. The reason it was scoreless: Parker Milner. Milner ended up stopping 33 of 34 shots that came his way tonight earning the first star of the game.

The best Manchester chance in the first came with just over a minute left while shorthanded. The play started when Cody Corbett broke his stick while trying to keep the puck in the zone. Manchester would get a breakaway but Milner came up big to keep the game scoreless heading into intermission.

Manchester controlled play to start the second until an innocent looking shot from Max Nicastro deflected off of Andrew Cherniwchan’ s skate and behind Sam Brittain 11:20 into the second to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

The Stingrays would head back to the locker room up 1-0 despite still being outshot 22-15. Rather than sitback to start the third the Rays came out firing with the first six shots of the period including this shot by Rob Flick to give the Rays the eventual game winner.

Things got interesting late in the game when Quentin Shore cut the lead in half with 6:01 to play.

The Monarchs would pull their goalie with 1:45 left to get the extra attacker. Joe Devin took a holding penalty with just over 40 seconds to give the Monarchs a six-on-four advantage to end the game. The Rays would hold off the Monarchs and go a perfect 7/7 on the penalty kill. Manchester came in clicking at 28% on the man-up on home ice during the playoffs.

The series is now a best of three with Game 5 on Saturday at 6 at the SNHU Arena. The Rays went 0/4 on the power play tonight. That will need to improve if the Rays look to take two more on the road from Manchester and advance to their second Kelly Cup Final in three years.

Brandon Alter

Brandon Alter covers all three teams in the Washington Capitals Organization. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in May of 2021.

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