ESTERO, FL—The South Carolina Stingrays suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to the Florida Everblades on Saturday night. Jack Adams, Garet Hunt, and Kevin O’Neil scored for the Stingrays, while Mitchell Gibson stopped 20 of 23 shots in the loss.
The Stingrays opened the scoring with 41 seconds left in the first period when Adams redirected a Bryce Montgomery shot for his 27th goal of the season.
1:40 into the second period, Florida tied the game at 1 when Bobo Carpenter potted a power-play goal for his team-leading 28th goal of the season.
The Stingrays pulled back in front when Hunt buried his third goal of the year. Hunt wristed a shot from the slot that trickled past Florida netminder Evan Cormier to make it 2-1 Stingrays.
The Everblades tied the game again on the power play when Zach Berzolla buried a slap shot from the top of the right circle.
The Stingrays took a 3-2 lead when O’Neil scored on the power play. O’Neil one-timed a Nick Leivermann feed for his 16th goal of the season.
Florida tied the game in the final two minutes of regulation when Sean Josling wired a wrist shot from the left circle to send the game to overtime.
The Stingrays learned in the final minutes of regulation in their game that the Orlando Solar Bears had scored in the last minute of their game against the Reading Royals to secure a 1-0 regulation victory and clinch the fourth and final Kelly Cup Playoff spot in the South Division.
The Stingrays and Everblades were scoreless through seven minutes of three-on-three overtime before Florida won the game in a shootout. Josling and Oliver Chau scored in the shootout for the Everblades.
Tonight’s game marks the conclusion of the 2023-24 South Carolina Stingrays season.
