Stingrays Top Atlanta 5-3 For 11th Road Win

The South Carolina Stingrays (15-2-1-0) scored four straight goals to dig themselves out of an early hole and earn their league-leading 11th road win of the season with a 5-3 defeat of the Atlanta Gladiators (9-9-0-0) on Wednesday night at the Infinite Energy Center.

BOX SCORE

South Carolina forward Cole Ully scored back-to-back tallies early on in the middle frame, while team captain Andrew Cherniwchan had a goal and an assist and forward Mark Cooper added two helpers. Goaltender Logan Thompson made 33 saves to pick up his seventh victory of the year.

Atlanta got off to a fast start, scoring twice in the opening period to take a 2-0 lead on goals by Luke Nogard at 3:37 and Eric Neiley on the power play at 7:31.

But South Carolina turned the game around at the start of the second when Ully took things into his own hands. The Calgary, Alberta native used a seeing-eye shot from the top of the left circle to cut the deficit to 2-1 just 40 seconds into the middle period. Cherniwchan recorded the lone assist on the team’s first goal of the night.

Then, just 2:37 later, forward Matthew Weis picked off an Atlanta pass in neutral ice before rushing into the offensive zone and feeding Ully in the slot for his second consecutive strike and his fifth of the season to tie the game 2-2 at 3:17.

Jonathan Charbonneau made it three goals in just over five minutes for South Carolina and gave the Rays a 3-2 lead at 5:11 of the second with a shot from the right circle that glanced off the skate of Atlanta defenseman Zach Malatesta and past Glads’ goaltender Sean Bonar.

Dan DeSalvo provided insurance for South Carolina at 13:52 of the third, scoring his fourth goal of the season on a 2-on-1 from Cooper to make it 4-2. Max Novak started the play by winning the puck along the wall and moving it up to Cooper for the rush.

After Atlanta’s Samuel Asselin cut the SC lead to 4-3 at 18:55 of the third, the Stingrays closed out the victory with an empty net goal from Cherniwchan at 19:22. Cooper was credited with the only assist on the final South Carolina tally of the evening.

Bonar took the loss for the Gladiators, making 31 saves in the contest. The two teams were even in shots on goal at 36-36. Atlanta scored the lone power play goal of the night and finished 1-for-4 on the man-advantage while SC was 0-for-2.

NEXT GAMEThe Stingrays head down to Florida for a two-game weekend series with the Everblades in Estero, beginning on Friday night at 7:30 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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