The South Carolina Stingrays dropped a 4-1 decision against the Trois-Rivieres Lions on Saturday night. Garin Bjorklund stopped 22 of 25 shots in the loss.
Jakov Novak opened the scoring for the Lions on the power play. Novak collected a cross-ice feed from Alex Olivier-Voyer and buried his team-leading seventh power-play goal of the season.
Ten minutes later, Novak doubled the Trois-Rivieres lead. He stole the puck from Ivan Lodnia right in front of the Stingrays' net and ripped a wrist shot into the top left corner to make it 2-0 Lions heading into the first intermission. The Stingrays held a 14-12 edge in shots after the opening 20 minutes.
Alex-Olivier Voyer scored the lone goal in the second period. Nicolas Guay rushed the puck into the Stingrays' zone and fired a shot that Bjorklund kicked out. Voyer pounced on the rebound to make it 3-0 Lions. The goal was Voyer's 17th goal of the season.
The Stingrays got on the board 3:43 into the final period thanks to a power play goal by Kevin O'Neil. O'Neil rushed the puck into the zone, executed a give-and-go with Austin Magera, and slipped a backhand past Trois-Rivieres goaltender Strauss Mann to make it 3-1.
That was as close as South Carolina would get. Nicolas Lariviere iced the game with an empty-net goal with 2:33 remaining. The Stingrays return to action tomorrow afternoon for a 3:05 p.m. tilt against the Trois Rivieres Lions. Stingrays legend Andrew Cherniwchan will have his jersey retired, and the ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m.
