BOISE, I.D. – Starting a five-game road trip, the South Carolina Stingrays dropped the first of three meetings this week with the Idaho Steelheads, 6-1, on Wednesday evening at Idaho Central Arena.
Idaho (38-19-5-1) capitalized early while on the power play at home. Kaleb Pearson scored 8:21 into the first period giving the Steelheads a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, Connor Punnett doubled Idaho’s advantage, putting South Carolina (40-20-1-2) in a two-goal hole just over 10 minutes in.
Late in the first, Idaho went to the power play again, where Liam Malmquist gave the Steelheads a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
In the second period, the Stingrays generated chances, outshooting the Steelheads 16-7, but it was Idaho adding to its advantage. Nick Portz scored with 4:32 remaining in the frame, and South Carolina went to the third trailing 4-0.
Coming out of the second intermission, South Carolina struck less than a minute in. Simon Pinard tapped home his team-leading 24th goal of the season cutting the deficit to three, 4-1.
After Pinard’s goal, the Stingrays pressed for more. South Carolina went to the power play twice over the next eight minutes, but were unable to capitalize with the man-advantage.
With just over six minutes remaining, Portz notched his second goal of the night building the Idaho lead back to four, 5-1. Less than two minutes later, Portz finished off a hat-trick with his third goal of the night, capping a 6-1 win for Idaho over South Carolina.
The Stingrays and Steelheads meet for the second of three meetings on Friday evening. Puck drop is set for 9:10 p.m. EDT from the Idaho Central Arena.