Behind a four-goal second period, the South Carolina Stingrays rolled to their seventh straight win, beating the Toledo Walleye, 5-1, on Friday evening at the North Charleston Coliseum in front of 4,282 fans.
After a quiet first 20 minutes for both sides, South Carolina (38-18-1-0) came out firing in the second period. The Stingrays went to the power play 90 seconds into the frame and capitalized, as Kaden Bohlsen wired home his 18th goal of the season to put South Carolina ahead, 1-0.
Nearly five minutes later, the Stingrays doubled their advantage. Kyler Kupka scored while falling to his backside at 7:40 of the second period to make it 2-0.
With the two-goal cushion, Bohlsen later found Connor Mayer cutting into the slot, where Mayer tipped home his second goal as a Stingray to extend the lead to 3-0 with 7:08 left in the period.
Toledo (34-14-4-4) could not solve Alexis Gravel, as the Stingrays netminder kept the high-powered Walleye offense at bay. Late in the second period, Kupka punched home his second goal of the night to give the Stingrays a 4-0 lead heading into the third period.
In the final frame, the Walleye eventually broke through as Will MacKinnon found the back of the net with 4:37 left in regulation, cutting the Stingrays’ lead to three, 4-1.
Following the goal, South Carolina went back to the power play less than a minute later, where Ludwig Persson roofed his seventh goal of the season to finish off a 5-1 win over the Walleye.
Gravel made 29 saves on 30 shots in the victory, while Kupka, Bohlsen, and Ryan Hofer each recorded multi-point nights. Eleven different players for the Stingrays registered points as South Carolina has now won 11 of its last 12 games.