Shane Connelly

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - After a tough stretch of uneven performances the Stingrays’ may have caught that fickle lady momentum by winning three straight games at home this weekend. They used a strong team-wide defensive effort that helped rookie goalie Shane Connelly grab three straight victories, all on shutouts over the past weekend.  The three wins ran the Stingrays’ record to 35-15-5-4 worth 79 points and first place in the American Conference of the ECHL.

South Carolina shutout the Gwinnett Gladiators on Friday night 4-0 and followed that up with back to back 6-0 wins over Toledo on Saturday night and in a Sunday afternoon matinee game.  They drew 18,240 fans over the three game weekend including crowds of 6,802 on Saturday at a Pink in the Rink night that served as a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness programs and 6,593 for Sunday’s matinee.

Friday night’s win 4-0 against Gwinnett saw the defensive effort limit the Gladiators to just 15 shots as the ‘Rays peppered losing goaltender Danny Taylor with 43 shots. Taylor made a number of great saves that kept the game closer than it should have been.

Spencer Carberry

South Carolina scored one goal in each of the first two periods and two times in the final stanza.  Rob Ricci (14), Spencer Carbery (10), Keith Johnson (21) and Matt Scherer (14) got the home team’s goals. Carbery’s goal came while his team was short handed.

Pink in the rink night saw the ‘Rays put together an almost mirror image of Friday’s win as they shut out the Toledo Walleye 6-0 with the game never in doubt. South Carolina scored three in the first period on 15 shots and limited the Walleye to just three shots on goal in the period. They added one goal in the second period and two more in the third period as they limited the visitors to just 13 shots on the night.

Gregg Johnson (15) and brother Keith Johnson (22) got the ‘Rays’ off to a fast start in period one that had the big crowd roaring on every rush. The home team continued to combine smothering defense and potent offense as Dane Prewitt got his tenth goal of the year with less than five minutes left in the opening period.

Defenseman Dylan Yeo scored his thirteenth of the year in period two off of a beautiful setup pass from rookie forward Jake Hauswirth who ended up with three assists in the game. Trevor Bruess (6) and recent AHL returnee Johann Kroll (2) picked up third period goals, to close out the scoring and solidify the second win and shutout of the weekend. Alec Richards in goal for Toledo stopped 37 of 43 shots in the loss.    

Jake Hauswirth

Sunday’s game and another big crowd saw the home team use four power play goals, scoring three times in the first period and adding three more in the last period on their way to another 6-0 win and the weekend’s third shutout for Connelly.

South Carolina cashed in on four of seven power play opportunities while Toledo was zero for five, while having the advantage. Jordan Pearce took the loss in goal for Toledo looking at 24 Stingrays’ shots on goal.  The ‘Rays were not quite as strong defensively as they allowed 22 shots, but Connelly made a number of excellent saves to preserve his shutout and was named the number one star of the game

The scoring for South Carolina was spread across the lineup as defenseman Grant Farrell got his first ECHL goal to start the scoring early in period one at 4:09 on a power play. Eleven seconds later at 4:20 Trevor Bruess got his seventh of the season and Keith Johnson got his team leading twenty-third goal of the year and the team’s second power play goal on the afternoon at the 7:04 mark.

Gregg Johnson

After a scoreless second period in which Toledo out-shot the home team, the other Johnson brother Gregg, hammered home goal number 16 on the season again on a power play. Next Trent Campbell got his fifteenth goal of the year while the teams were at equal strength. A late power play goal by Dain Prewitt (11) closed out the scoring at the 18:19 mark.

The crowd and most likely goal tender Shane Connelly, a product of the United States Hockey League and the University of Wisconsin, counted down the last minute and a half as the ‘Rays worked hard to preserve the shutout. Connelly ran his record to 11-4-4 since joining the team about six weeks ago from the Johnstown Chiefs.               

The ‘Rays travel to Florida to play the Everblades in Estero, Florida in a two game set next weekend and then meet the North Division leader the Cincinnati Cyclones at home over the first weekend in March.

Contact the writer at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com