The South Carolina Stingrays earned a crucial 3-2 overtime victory on the road against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Friday evening. Mitchell Gibson made 36 saves on 38 shots, and the Stingrays recorded 28 shots on goal in the victory.
Jack Adams scored first for the Stingrays just after the halfway mark of the first period. Adams' 24th goal of the season came off an initial shot by Ryan Leibold in the slot area that saw Adams crash the net and cash in on the rebound.
The Swamp Rabbits tied the score at 6:04 into the second period of action. Carter Souch wrapped around the back of Gibson's net and redirected a pass from Brett Kemp into the back of the net to make it 1-1.
Greenville took their first lead of the night with just under four minutes remaining in the second period. Kemp went five-hole on Gibson for the Swamp Rabbits' second goal of the evening.
Ethan Strang and the Stingrays answered eight seconds later to even things up at 2-2. Following a center-ice faceoff draw, Adams muscled the Swamp Rabbits off the puck and forced a turnover that was picked up by Ethan Strang and wristed into the back of the Greenville net.
No goals were scored in the third and final period of regulation play, pushing the game into seven minutes of overtime.
Austin Magera secured the victory for the Stingrays, netting the third and final goal for South Carolina 3:58 into OT. The game-winning goal came on a 4-on-3 powerplay opportunity. Kevin O'Neil passed the puck across the ice from the left to the right circle, where Magera's shot beat Greenville's Jacob Ingham on his glove side. Nick Leivermann recorded the secondary assist on the night's final goal.
Tomorrow, the Stingrays will face off with the Swamp Rabbits once more, this time at 6:05 p.m. at the North Charleston Coliseum.
