Trailing by a goal midway through the first period, the South Carolina Stingrays scored five unanswered goals to blow by the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, 5-2, on Wednesday morning at the North Charleston Coliseum in front of an Education Day record crowd of 9,732 fans.
Greenville (19-21-5-1) opened the scoring just over eight minutes into the opening frame. Jack Brackett beat South Carolina (31-17-1-0) netminder Seth Eisele on an odd-man chance giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Following Brackett’s goal, the Stingrays took over. Dean Loukus punched home his fourth goal of the season to tie the contest at one at the 11:48 mark before South Carolina took the lead for good in the final minutes of the opening period. Simon Pinard wired home his team-leading 21st goal with 2:36 left in the period to give the Stingrays a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes.
South Carolina wasted no time adding to its lead in the second. Stanley Cooley deflected home a centering pass from Josh Wilkins, building the lead to two, 3-1. Less than two minutes later, Kaden Bohlsen snapped a wrist shot past Swamp Rabbits netminder, Pierce Charleson, putting the Stingrays ahead by three, 4-1. South Carolina was not done there. Later in the middle frame, Wilkins slotted home his 100th professional goal of his career giving the Stingrays their largest lead of the game, 5-1.
Greenville found a response shortly after Wilkins’ goal. While on the power play, Patrick Polino deflected a shot from the point past Eisele to cut the Stingrays advantage to three, 5-2.
South Carolina took the three-goal lead to the third period and Eisele stood tall in net, stopping all 12 shots he faced in the final frame to close out the 5-2 win for South Carolina.
Eisele stopped 39 of 41 shots for his 13th win of the season. Pinard extended his point streak to 12 games with a goal and an assist while Wilkins and Bohlsen also added multi-point outings. 11 different Stingrays recorded at least a point in the win.