Domenic Monardo may not have meant to score two goals tonight, but he did.
His second goal came off a seemingly innocent wrist shot from the left faceoff circle, and trickled behind Anthony Peters after he blockered it up. With the 3-2 win, the South Carolina Stingrays take a 1-0 series lead in the South Division Finals from Germain Arena.
This marked the first overtime game of the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the Stingrays. The Everblades beat the Orlando Solar Bears in game three of the first round.
For the seventh consecutive contest between these teams, including the regular season, one goal decided the game.
The Stingrays gave up two goals on the first two shots of the game, and in the same way: a turnover deep in the defensive zone, followed by three quick passes, and a driving tip to the back of the net. Brant Harris and Michael Kirkpatrick benefitted from the precision passing.
South Carolina did not register a shot on goal until after Kirkpatrick’s goal, nearly ten minutes into the first period.
Steven McParland cashed in on the first power-play of the game to halve the Florida lead. Joe Devin got the better of John McCarron with a rattling puck. With the puck suspended in mid-air, McParland swung and made enough contact to smack it behind Anthony Peters.
Devin has scored at least one point in all seven of South Carolina’s postseason contests.
On the team’s seventh shot, Monardo tied the game. With four bodies between him and Peters, Monrado just threw one at the net. Peters did not react until the net was rippling behind him.
In both the first and third period, the Everblades held the Stingrays to three shots. The Rays survived a penalty kill over the last two minutes of the period cause by having too many men on the ice.
Milner ended the night with 34 saves on over 99 minutes of work, while Peters stopped 26 shots.
Despite chances from Andrew Cherniwchan and Levko Koper on breakaways, South Carolina and Florida needed double overtime to decide this one.
Florida had the run of play for the fifth period. With 63 seconds left, Everblades captain Brent Harris tried to pass the puck up ice from near his bench. Stingrays leading-scorer Rob Flick had other ideas, and knocked him off the puck.
Flick kicked the puck past Kevin Raine and to Monardo. As Monardo shot, Koper swung his stick and managed to get a piece of the shot. The shot rose to the right side of Peters with little power on it. After hitting the blocker, it fell into the blue paint and rolled over the goal line.
These teams will rematch in game two tomorrow night from Germain Arena.
MONARDO FOR THE WIN in the 99th minute!!!#RaysYourGame pic.twitter.com/3sNSUr1NQR
— SC Stingrays (@SCStingrays) April 29, 2017
