Stingrays' 7-game unbeaten streak halted

  • Andrew Miller
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  • Posted: Saturday, January 15, 2011 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Friday, March 23, 2012 12:33 p.m.
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Florida's Mike McKenzie (12) had an assist on a goal that beat Stingrays goalie Todd Ford and Bryan Schmidt (4) during Friday night's game.
Brad Nettles /Florida's Mike McKenzie (12) had an assist on a goal that beat Stingrays goalie Todd Ford and Bryan Schmidt (4) during Friday night's game.

South Carolina's seven-game unbeaten streak came to a resounding end Friday night against the Florida Everblades.

Mike Egener scored a goal and added two assists as Florida scored four second-period goals to beat South Carolina, 5-1, before a crowd of 3,940 at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The Stingrays, who were 6-0-1 in their last seven games, fell to 21-15-2 (44 points). The Everblades snapped a six-game winless streak, and improved to 21-19-2 (46 points).

Going into the game, the Stingrays and Everblades appeared to be two teams headed in different directions. The Everblades had not won a game since New Year's Eve and were just 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

The Stingrays, meanwhile, had been one of the hottest teams in the ECHL, having won 15 of their last 20 and having not lost since Dec. 27.

It was also the Everblades' third game in four days. On paper, it shouldn't have even been a close game -- and it wasn't.

From the outset, the Everblades outplayed the Stingrays, getting to most of the loose pucks and winning the battle on the boards.

"I thought we came into the game soft," South Carolina Stingrays head coach Cail MacLean said. "We were not ready to play. It's unacceptable. We all should be really upset with our effort. We could be on a 40-game winning streak, and we can't come out and have an effort like that. The bottom line is our standards are higher than that.

"We need to take some more pride in our game and in our preparation. That cannot happen. We're battling Florida in the standings, so we've got a very slim margin of error."

Florida goalie Bobby Goepfert, who played for the Stingrays during the 2007-08 season, shut down any offense South Carolina generated, stopping 25 of 26 shots on the night.

"We did have some scoring chances," MacLean said. "Bobby found a lot of pucks. We had some fight in front of the net and there were some scrambles, but Bobby came up big for them. Give him some credit."

The Everblades took a 1-0 lead Matt Becca's goal with 7:17 left in the opening period.

Pierre-Luc O'Brien answered for the Stingrays four minutes later and tied the game at 1 when his wrist shot deflected off of a Florida defenseman.

But it was all Everblades in the second period.

Mathieu Roy scored a power-play goal three minutes into the second period that the Stingrays thought had been kicked into the net. Referee Tom Steinel conferred with the linesman, but awarded the goal to the Everblades.

One minute later, Drew Larman scored, and the rout was on.

"I don't think we kept our composure very well after their second goal," MacLean said. "It's almost like we let that goal beat us for another goal. We've got to battle through something like that and keep playing. We can't worry about the calls."

Slap shots

--Maxime Lacroix, Nikita Kashirsky and Johann Kroll are currently with the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League.

--Defenseman Joe Finley (lower body) and forwards Trent Campbell (lower body) and Dan Eves (lower body) were out of the lineup with injuries.

First Period: 1. F, Becca 8 (Fisher, McKenzie), 12:43. 2. SC, O'Brien 10 (Pietrus, Godfrey), 16:50. Penalties: Imbeault, F (slashing), 5:26; Snetsinger, F (slashing), 12:14; Ricci, SC (hooking), Mahbod, SC (interference), 17:48; Lemiuex, F (hooking), 18:10.

Second Period: 2. F, Roy 8 (Lemieux, Egener), 3:16. 3. F, Larman 1 (Egener, Mosey), 4:16. 5. F, Egener 2 (Becca, Carlson), 12;26. 6. F, Mosey 1 (unassisted), 15:23. Penalties: Raymond, F (fighting), 2:46; Pietrus, SC (goal tender interference, fighting), 2:46; Lawson, F (hooking), 5:03; McNeill, SC (cross checking), 11:34; McNeill, SC (roughing), 19:53.

Third Period: No goals. Penalties: Scherer, SC (hooking), 7:13; O'Brien, SC (tripping), 10:33; Goebel, SC (boarding), 15:23; Paquet, F (roughing), 18:41; Timkin, F (roughing), 18;41; McNeill, SC (fighting), 18:41; Scherer, SC (roughing), 18:41.

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 8-11-13-32; Florida: 10-11-5-26. Penalties: Stingrays 11-28; Florida 7-17. Power Play: Stingrays 0 for 4; Florida 2 for 9. Goalies: Stingrays - Todd Ford (10-6-1-) 21 shots, 16 saves. Jared DeMichiel (11-5-0) 5 shots, 5 saves. Florida - Bobby Goepfert (14-8-2) 27 shots, 24 saves. Att: 3,940.