Washington Capitals goaltending prospect Vitek Vanecek has allowed three goals in the last six periods of hockey he’s played. His 27 saves over the last three helped the South Carolina Stingrays mount another comeback victory over the Wheeling Nailers, winning 3-1 to take a 3-2 Eastern Conference Finals series lead back to North Charleston Coliseum.
Brian Foster retook the crease for the hometown Nailers, his first bit of action since Game 1; he finished the game with 35 saves on 37 shots. Colton Saucerman pierced him for a power play goal and David Pacan shoved home the game winner as he was out too far to challenge.
The Nailers started a power play by winning the faceoff and proceeded to score the opening goal, the first time they have done so in this series and the first time either team scored in the first period. Matthew Maione‘s shot from the blue line was tipped past Vanecek by Cody Wydo in the mid slot.
John McCarron started a shoving match with Joey Leach after a shot off the post by Ty Loney. McCarron went off for four minutes while Leach only got two minutes, Wydo served the extra minor for Wheeling. The Nailers killed off the first 41 seconds with limited trouble, then Jordan Kwas got kicked out of the faceoff dot.
Kelly Zajac won the puck from Shane Bakker back to Saucerman, who had ample room to walk in and fire over the glove of Foster. Brett Stern could not get over from the low circle in time to disrupt the shot.
From there, the Stingrays’ forecheck took over. Two players were thrown forward at every chance of a breakout with a third player sitting on the blue line ready to intercept a pass or drop back on defense in case.
Again off a faceoff win, the Stingrays set up to score the game winner. Pacan won the draw back to Spencer Humphries, who flicked a shot on net with Pacan and Fyten around Foster. Foster knocked down the initial shot, but Fyten passed the rebound to Paca. With his stick on the ice, he pushed it over the line for his third of the playoffs.
Stephan Vigier added an empty netter from between the offensive blue line and the center stripe, his fifth of the playoffs, to seal a Stingrays victory, 3-1. Austin Fyten took a high-sticking penalty with 0.1 seconds to go in the game, but the officials opted to end the game instead of having another faceoff.
The Stingrays and Nailers will faceoff in Game 6 on Tuesday, with the Rays holding the chance to close out the series and await the winner of the Allen Americans, whom they played last season in the Kelly Cup Finals, and Fort Wayne Komets in the Western Conference. After their overtime win tonight, the Americans lead their series 3-1, with Game 5 tomorrow night.
