The proud South Carolina Stingrays are playing a good season in the East Coast Hockey League. Their road to the Kelly Cup Playoffs is not a highway, but a comfortable road nonetheless. Of course, it is still quite early to talk about the playoffs, since the run for the Kelly begins at the end of April, but at the midway point of the season we can put some perspective in front of us and try to predict the Rays chances of making the postseason.
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Let’s start by focusing on the Stingrays’ season so far. South Carolina won 25 games and lost 14. 2 losses came in overtime and 2 came via shootouts. It’s not a perfect record, of course, but it is still pretty good. With a lot of hockey left, the team seems to have a nice route to the playoffs.
What do the standings tell us
Right now, the South Carolina Stingrays are fourth in the Eastern Conference and second in the South Division. Both tables are led by the actual ECHL champions, the Florida Everblades. In order to aim high, the Rays need to find a way to compete with the best. Before them, there are also the Wheeling Nailers and the Trois-Rivières Lions, from Canada. There are still more than 30 games to play in the league, several of which are against these better-positioned teams.
The Stingrays put together a solid season so far, thanks to the valiant efforts of forwards Kyler Kupka, Erik Middendorf, Micah Miller, Josh Wilkins and Charlie Combs. On the defensive side, Jayden Lee, Andrew Perrott and Connor Moore performed very well while the goalie Seth Eisele saved a good amount of shots against his goal. All in all, this is a good team but we still have to see whether they’ll keep their footing against the powerhouses of the ECHL.
The latest outing against the Everblades has been encouraging, showing a tenacious team, capable of holding its head high against the best of the class. The shootout win saw regulation scores by Micah Miller and Justin Nachbaur. The shootout hero was Austin Magera. The MVP, however, was Seth Eisele, who stopped 21 shots of 23 against him. Hats off for the goaltender!
What will come next?
The biggest question needing to be answered is the one in the title of this paragraph. How far will the Stingrays go? There are a lot of positive elements to be proud of at the moment. Having a rock wall for a goalie is the first one. Whenever a team doesn’t allow a lot of goals, they can play in a conservative way. This is less spectacular, of course, but a lot of times it allows a side to make the most of its chances, exploiting weaknesses and distractions. Eisele is the kind of player you can always count on, as he is showing this January, a month in which he already received an individual award: the goalie of the week.
The injury to Jayden Lee is hopefully just a minor setback for the team, even if the defender will be out for a couple of weeks. The team hopes his reserve, Jordan Klimek, just activated, can step right in and help his teammate to stay in games and win some until the starter comes back.
