Despite a 41-22 shots on goal advantage, the South Carolina Stingrays dropped Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals to the Kalamazoo Wings by a final of 5-3. The remainder of the series moves to North Charleston, starting with Game 4 on Thursday.
Mark Dekanich made 17 saves in his fifth consecutive start while Joel Martin held the Rays off with 38 stops. Austin Fyten led all skaters with nine shots on goal; Derek DeBlois, the next closest, had six.
Dekanich got an assist on the opening goal by Nick Jones simply by settling the puck behind the net after Kalamazoo cleared the zone on the Rays power play. Jones skated the length of the ice Bobby Orr style, collected his own rebound off Martin and chipped it over his outstretched body for his first of the playoffs.
That would be all for the first, but head coach Nick Bootland and his troops came out ready for the second. On Brett Cameron’s carry-over minor for holding at the end of the first, Kalamazoo opened on the power play.
Justin Kovacs initially shot at Dekanich from behind the goal line and the save was made, but his pads got caught and subsequently sent Dekanich on his backside. The puck was worked back to Kovacs in the low faceoff circle to shoot over the raised leg of the South Carolina goaltender.
David Gilbert won an offensive zone faceoff to Zack Phillips and he gave Kalamazoo their first lead of the series. Minutes later on a four-on-four chance, Cory Pritz could not complete a steal on Brett Cameron, who did complete his net drive to score and knot the game at two.
The Stingrays failed to clear the zone with their next shorthanded chance, leading to a rebound goal for Alex Mallet to give the Wings a permanent lead. A careless pass from Nick D’Agostino turned the puck over in the offensive zone and lead to the game winner from Kovacs mid-third.
Joe Devin teed off after DeBlois passed it from behind the cage and cut the deficit to one, but the empty netter from Phillips secured Kalamazoo their first win of the series.
South Carolina outshot Kalamazoo 18-4 in the third period. Also of note, this is the Stingrays’ first regulation loss since February 28th.
The teams will change venues for the duration of the series, calling North Charleston Coliseum the battlefield of choice for however many games remain in the series. Game 4, complete with $2 beer from an hour before to an hour after puck drop, will be Thursday at 7:05.
