Rays Put On Defensive Clinic In Shutout Performance

The South Carolina Stingrays (16-2-1-0) allowed just 22 shots on goal to the Florida Everblades (12-7-1-2) Friday night and goaltender Parker Milner stopped all of them to earn his fourth shutout of the season in a 2-0 victory at Hertz Arena.

BOX SCORE

South Carolina improved to 3-0-0 against the Everblades this season in a trio of games played on the road in Estero. The team has earned points in all six games they’ve played on their current road trip (5-0-1) and have secured points in 11 straight road games. Overall this season, SC is 12-1-1 away from North Charleston.

Forward Matthew Weis led the way with a goal and an assist in the contest, while forward Mark Cooper scored a third period power play goal to extend his current point streak to five games.

Milner improved to 8-1-1 on the year and currently leads the ECHL in goals-against average (1.43), save percentage (0.945) and shutouts (4).

Weis got South Carolina on the board early with his fourth goal of the year off a shot from the left circle that beat Florida goaltender Ken Appleby to make it 1-0 Stingrays. The goal, which came at 3:07 of the first, came with assists from defender Tariq Hammond and team captain Andrew Cherniwchan.

Due to the Rays’ excellent defensive performance throughout, the score didn’t change until late in the contest. With Florida’s John McCarron sitting in the penalty box for tripping, Cooper netted his ninth tally of the season on the power play from Weis and forward Dan DeSalvo.

Weis, who was recalled to Hershey late last month, has scored points in each of his first two games back with South Carolina.

The Stingrays outshot the Everblades 27-22 in the game. Appleby suffered the loss for Florida, stopping 25 shots in defeat. South Carolina finished 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Everblades were 0-for-2.

NEXT GAMEThe Stingrays and Everblades meet again on Saturday night at Hertz Arena beginning at 7 p.m.

—The Stingrays return home for five games in December! Tickets for all of South Carolina’s upcoming 2019-20 home contests are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

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