GREENVILLE, SC. - The South Carolina Stingrays broke the franchise record for points in a single season with 105 points with today's 3-2 win over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. The win was South Carolina's fifteenth consecutive victory. Tyler Weiss, Alexander Suzdalev, and Ryan Hofer scored for the Stingrays, while goaltender Seth Eisele stopped 20 of 22 shots.
The first period went scoreless, with Greenville outshooting South Carolina 10-9.
Weiss put the Stingrays on the board at 4:40 into the second period. With the Stingrays on the power play, Weiss found a loose puck in front of Greenville goaltender Mattias Sholl and backhanded it into an empty cage to tally his ninth point in the last three games.
Austin Saint put the Swamp Rabbits on the board for his twelfth goal of the season. Saint moved in on a breakaway and slid the puck past Eisele's left pad to tie the game at one.
Suzdalev would get a late-period goal to regain the Stingray lead. Romain Rodzinski fired a shot from the left point that Suzdalev redirected past Sholl for his fifteenth goal of the season.
Greenville opened up the third period with a goal from Stepan Timofeyev. Timofeyev ripped a slap shot from the high slot past Eisele to tie the game at two apiece with 13:54 remaining.
Hofer answered right back to put the Rays back in front with a quick turnaround shot. Sholl had a kick save on Riley Webb's shot from the point, but Hofer buried the follow-up for his eleventh goal of the season. Greenville got a power play in the final two minutes, and Sholl headed for the bench to give Greenville an extra attacker and a six-on-four advantage. The Swamp Rabbits could not bury the equalizer, and the Stingrays hung on for the victory.
South Carolina is back in action next weekend as they head to Virginia for two games against the Norfolk Admirals before returning to Greenville on Sunday for their last regular season game. The Stingrays need one more point to clinch the Brabham Cup as the ECHL regular season champion.
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