With the 2001 Kelly Cup Championship team returning to the North Charleston Coliseum on Saturday night, the South Carolina Stingrays turned back the clock with a vintage performance against in-state rival Greenville.
After three fights in the opening two minutes and a pair of goals in each of the first and second periods, South Carolina powered past the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, 5-3, on Saturday evening in front of 6,468 fans.
Off the opening faceoff, South Carolina’s Justin Nachbaur and Greenville’s John Parker-Jones dropped the gloves, setting the tone for the evening. Four seconds after the first tilt, Ryan Hofer and Ryan O’Reilly squared off in a center-ice bout. The fireworks continued as Dean Loukus and Keaton Mastrodonato fought, leaving three players in each penalty box just 96 seconds into the game.
Following the three fights, Greenville (26-31-7-1) struck first. Ben Poisson scored 5:46 into the first period to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
South Carolina (43-21-1-3) searched for a response and found it in Hofer. He intercepted a pass at the top of the zone and wired home his second goal of the season, tying the game at one with 9:40 left in the frame.
With time winding down in the first, Anthony Rinaldi found Mikey Adamson cutting to the slot, and he scored his first professional goal to put the Stingrays ahead, 2-1.
In the second period, the Swamp Rabbits tied it just past the halfway mark, as Jack Brackett knotted the score at two.
The Stingrays wasted little time regaining the lead. Kaden Bohlsen scored on the backhand with 6:01 left in the second, and Simon Pinard added his team-leading 28th of the year with 3:34 remaining to give South Carolina a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
With a two-goal cushion, the Stingrays extended their lead. Loukus scored his eighth goal of the season with 11:32 left in the third, pushing South Carolina ahead 5-2.
Caiden Gault cut South Carolina’s lead to two with 7:53 left, but the Stingrays held on in the final minutes to beat the Swamp Rabbits, 5-3.
Adamson, Loukus, and Pinard each recorded multi-point nights, while Ty Taylor earned his ninth win of the season, stopping 19 of 22 shots. Nine different Stingrays recorded a point in the victory. South Carolina has won 25 home games this year, the second-most in the ECHL.
The Stingrays start a three-game road trip on Friday evening against the Florida Everblades. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. from Hertz Arena in Estero, Florida.