At the North Charleston Coliseum, banners line the rafters. From retired numbers to Brabham Cup and division championship banners, there are three that stand out among the rest, representing the biggest accomplishment in the ECHL, winning the Kelly Cup.
This Saturday, the Stingrays will honor the 2000-01 Kelly Cup Champions, who brought home the second Kelly Cup in franchise history. A team that was tough, physical, and skilled, one that made the Stingrays perennial contenders for the Kelly Cup, broke through again, just four years after the first championship in franchise history.
On that team were several players who had brought the organization its first championship, including forward David Seitz.
Seitz was a rookie during the 1996-97 season after playing four years at Clarkson University and excelled in his first professional campaign. With the Stingrays that season, Seitz recorded 97 points, including 43 goals and 54 assists, the third-most on the team, as the franchise won its first Kelly Cup. In his first season with the Stingrays, Seitz learned what it took to lead and excel, lessons that helped him throughout his career.
“The leadership we had coming in as a rookie made my job really easy,” Seitz said. “I got to watch guys play and prepare, and I learned how to be a pro every single game. Don’t take a shift off, play hard, and play for your teammates. It was really easy for me to step in because they were just great leaders.”
Following his rookie season, Seitz continued his career with the Stingrays while spending multiple stints with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and the Chicago Wolves of the International Hockey League. After four terrific seasons with the Stingrays, Seitz had grown into a leader in the locker room by the start of the 2000-01 season. South Carolina also welcomed newcomers to the roster, including defenseman Trevor Johnson.
Johnson joined the Stingrays following two seasons with the Hampton Roads Admirals and became a force on the backend for South Carolina. While entering a new locker room can be difficult, the leaders on the Stingrays made the transition easy for the newest players.
“We had great players, some from around the league and some new to the league, joining the team,” Johnson said. “We got to know each other quickly because we were the new guys, but the guys who had been here were great to us and showed us the ropes.”
The 2000-01 team grew very close quickly. Seitz saw this version of the Stingrays coming together much like the first championship team in 1996-97.
“I can say those are the two closest teams that I played on,” Seitz said. “It seems like we did everything together. Obviously, you're in the rink, you're on the bus, you're in the locker room a lot of the time, but with those two teams, we spent more time together off the ice. We all came together. We loved being around every guy on the team, and that was one of those things that just made it easier on the ice somehow for us all to play for each other.”
After starting the season 3-3-2, the Stingrays would not fall below a .500 winning percentage for the rest of the year. With a mix of physicality, skill, and strong goaltending, wins began to pile up for South Carolina, and so did the confidence. At one point in the regular season, the Stingrays won ten straight games on the road, which is when the team started to realize they might have what it takes.
“It happened in the middle of the season on a long road trip,” Seitz said. “It's just one of those things that made us realize, during that run, that we knew this was something special.”
“The ten-game win streak on the road was a point at which I think we all came together,” Johnson said. “We realized what we had was something pretty special when you can go on the road and contend.”
The Stingrays rolled to a Southeast Division title, finishing the regular season with a 42-23-7 record and placing fourth overall in the ECHL. The Trenton Titans won the Brabham Cup that season, earning home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. South Carolina earned the number one seed in the Southern Conference for the Kelly Cup Playoffs, meaning they would have home-ice advantage until the Kelly Cup Finals.
In the Southern Conference Quarterfinals, the Stingrays defeated the Arkansas RiverBlades in four games, 3-1, cruising to the semifinals and setting up a matchup with the Mobile Mysticks.
Across the five-game series, the Stingrays and Mysticks split the first two meetings in North Charleston, and the Mysticks took home-ice advantage from South Carolina. In Game Three, Mobile defeated South Carolina 7-4, putting the Stingrays on the brink of elimination.
A team that had already been battle-tested on the road that season staved off elimination in Game Four, defeating Mobile 6-3 and forcing a decisive Game Five back in North Charleston. Game Five delivered, going to two overtimes before the Stingrays earned the win and advanced to the Southern Conference Finals.
After a physical second-round matchup, the Stingrays swept the Louisiana IceGators in four games to move on to the Kelly Cup Finals, setting up a matchup with the Brabham Cup champion Trenton Titans.
In Game One on the road, South Carolina defeated the Titans in overtime, 3-2. In Game Two, the Stingrays took full control of the series with a 5-3 victory. South Carolina returned home to North Charleston with a chance to win the Kelly Cup on home ice.
The Stingrays lost in double overtime in Game Three before winning Game Four, 6-5, to take a 3-1 series lead. In Game Five, South Carolina would not be denied, as the Stingrays defeated the Titans 3-2 to win the franchise’s second Kelly Cup.
For Seitz, it was his second Kelly Cup, but winning the championship at home in North Charleston was one of the best moments of his career, a sentiment shared by many members of the 2000–01 team.
“Winning at home in the Coliseum is by far the happiest moment of my playing career,” Seitz said. “To win in front of 10,500 people, my family, the whole Charleston community, it seemed like everybody I knew was at the game. To win in front of them and bring home a Kelly Cup in front of our home fans is something I'll never forget.”
“I’m very grateful,” Johnson said. “We had such a great following, a great booster club, and all the fans were so supportive. That was the only championship I ever won, so for me, it was special to be there with the friends I built through that year and still call friends to this day.”
Following the 2000–01 season, Johnson spent the next five seasons with the Stingrays, playing in 331 games with the club, the seventh-most in franchise history, and ranking third in penalty minutes. Seitz went on to play three more seasons with the Stingrays and finished his career with the most goals (217), assists (370), and points (587) in franchise history, records that still stand today.
After coming to the Lowcountry as players, both now call Charleston home, a city that welcomed and embraced them.
The two, along with the other members of the 2000-01 Kelly Cup Championship team, will return to the North Charleston Coliseum this Saturday as the Stingrays honor the team that brought the organization its second Kelly Cup as South Carolina hosts the Orlando Solar Bears at 6:05 p.m. on Rock The Retro Night, presented by IBEW Local 776.