Warriors stymie Stingrays

  • Andrew Miller
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • Posted: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Friday, March 23, 2012 3:42 p.m.
  • Text size: A A A

The South Carolina Stingrays can blame Lori Missiaen for their troubles Tuesday night.

Growing up in Chatham, Ontario, Greenville's Jason Missiaen wanted to play hockey, but the only position he was allowed to play was goalie.

His mother insisted.

"I couldn't skate out because my mother wouldn't let me," Jason Missiaen said with a chuckle. "She would let me be the goalie only because it had the most pads. She didn't realize until later that it was also the most expensive position to play."

Missiaen stopped 36 shots and the Road Warriors scored three times on the power play as Greenville beat South Carolina, 4-1, in front of 1,708 fans at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The Stingrays, who have lost three straight, dropped to 27-20-2 (56 points) and find themselves in third place in the ECHL's South Division. The Road Warriors improved to 27-17-3 (57 points) and moved within three points of first-place Gwinnett.

At 6-8, Missiaen has been more notable for his size than his ability to stop the puck. He is the tallest goalie in pro hockey in North America, but is just 9-9-2 in his rookie season. However, there is one team he has owned this season, and that has been the Stingrays.

Missiaen is 3-0 against his in-state rivals and has given up just one goal in 180 minutes. Both of his professional shutouts have come against the Stingrays. In three games against South Carolina, he has stopped 112 of the 113 shots he had faced.

"I don't think it's anything special about South Carolina," Missiaen said. "They've got a good team, I've just been fortunate against them. I think our defense has played well, and for whatever reason, they haven't been able to score."

Maxime Lacroix said while Missian's height does present some special problems, the Stingrays did not pressure the Greenville goalie as much as they would have liked.

"He takes up a lot of the net, but we didn't get enough traffic in front of him," Lacroix said."He's like every other goalie. He can't save what he can't see. Getting tips, getting rebounds makes a big difference, and we didn't do a good job of getting to the net tonight."

Missiaen found his groove early, making two early saves on Pierre-Luc O'Brien in the first 10 minutes of the game.

"You make a couple of saves early like that and it gives you some confidence," Missiaen said. "I thought we did a good job in the third period of closing out the game."

Besides Missian, the difference was special teams. The Road Warriors converted three of five power play chances, while the Stingrays were shut out on seven opportunities.

"Special teams are becoming an issue for us," said Stingrays coach Spencer Carbery. "It's a combination of things. We're not getting in shooting lanes and we're not collapsing in front of our net, and the other team is getting a ton of second-chance opportunities. We're just not winning enough battles."

The Road Warriors got power play goals from Brett Robinson and Jeremy Gouchie in the first period. Jeff Prough added another power-play goal in the second to give the Road Warriors a 3-0 lead.

South Carolina captain Matt Scherer finally figured out Missiaen with his rebound goal late in the second period, but the Stingrays couldn't muster much of an attack over the final 20 minutes.

Slap shots

--The Stingrays signed forward Greg Beller from the Columbus Cottonmouth, of the Southern Professional Hockey League. However, Beller was not in the lineup Tuesday night against Greenville.

--The Stingrays acquired Tyler Shelast off waivers from Florida. He had a goal and two assists with the Everblades in 10 games this season. Shelast is expected to be in the lineup this weekend.

--Defenseman Phil Oreskovic (Hershey), and forwards Matt Pope (Hershey) and Sean Dolan (Charlotte) are currently called up to the American Hockey League.

--Goalie Daren Machesney (lower body), Greg Stewart (upper body), Billy Ryan (lower body) and Chris Higgins (upper body) were out of the lineup with injuries.

--The Stingrays are 14-8-1 at home and 13-11-1 on the road this season.

First Period: 1. G, Robinson 16 (Prough, Baldwin) 3:44. 2. G, Gouchie 5 (Baldwin, Robinson), 18:28. Penalties: Hamilton, SC (slashing), 2:43; Wilson, G (elbowing), 7:34; Hamilton, SC (slashing), 12:36; Wilson, G (too many men on the ice), 14:43; Turnbull, SC (holding), 17:26; Niemi, G (high sticking), 19:06.

Second Period: 3. G, Prough 16 (Baldwin, Gouchie), 13:38. 4. SC, Scherer 4 (Pereira, Keller), 15:08. Penalties: Vallerand, G (double-minor, slashing), :41; O'Brien, SC (holding), 1;35; Hamilton, SC (hooking), 4:00; Cameron, G (hooking), 6:10; Pereira, SC (slashing), 13:02. Penalties: Stingrays 11-14-2-2-1-30; Greenville: 9-6-10-2-0-27. Penalties: Stingrays 4-8; Greenville 4-11. Power Play: Stingrays 1 for 4; Greenville 1 for 3. Goalies: Stingrays - Billy Sauer (3-7-0) 27 shots, 24 saves. Greenville - Jason Missiaen (8-9-2) 29 shots, 26 saves. Att: 2,316.