By: Stingrays Media
Two days after equaling their best offensive output of the year, the South Carolina Stingrays (23-18-9-3) won their third straight game and set a new high mark for the season by scoring seven times in a 7-4 victory over the Orlando Solar Bears (28-21-4-1) on Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center.
Three different SC forwards had multi-goal efforts in the contest, including Dan DeSalvo, Andrew Cherniwchan and Max Novak, while Cole Ully picked up assists on four of the tallies and goaltender Alex Dubeau earned his third straight win with 26 saves.
Other multi-point scorers for the Stingrays included forwards Justin Florek and Matthew Weis as well as defender Connor Moore, who all registered two assists.
Orlando took an initial 1-0 lead when Michael Joly converted on the power play at 8:36 of the opening period.
South Carolina evened the game at 1-1 with a power play goal of their own less than three minutes later when Novak found the back of the net during a man-advantage at 11:13 of the first. Assists on the strike went to DeSalvo and Ully.
Later in the frame, defender Tyler Nanne put the Rays on top 2-1 when he converted a breakaway opportunity by flipping the puck over the glove of Orlando goaltender Clint Windsor at 16:19. Novak earned the first assist on the tally, while Weis picked up the second helper.
In the second period, the Solar Bears tied the game at 2-2 on a goal by Anthony Repaci 3:43 before Novak put the Rays back in front 3-2 with his second strike of the day at 5:09 from Ully and Weis.
Before the end of the frame, Orlando's Mark Auk scored at 17:39 to send the teams into the second intermission even at 3-3.
But South Carolina stormed out of the gate in the third to take control and netted four total tallies in the final 20 minutes. During a 4-on-3 man-advantage, DeSalvo regained the lead for the Rays at 4-3 by scoring the team's second power play goal of the day on a rebound in front at 1:48 from Novak and Ully.
DeSalvo struck again just 21 seconds later during 4-on-4 play to make it 5-3 SC, poking the puck over Windsor for his second of the day and 14th of the year from Ully and Moore.
The Rays were not done yet as Cherniwchan extended the lead to 6-3 with his 12th of the season on a wrist shot from the right circle that came from Florek and Cam Askew at 7:00 of the final frame.
A goal by Orlando's Matthew Spencer cut the advantage down to 6-4 at 9:49, but Cherniwchan put South Carolina back in front by three for good with his second of the afternoon on a re-direct of a shot by Moore at 12:58. Florek, who won the face-off to start the play in the offensive zone, earned the second assist on the team's final tally of the contest.
South Carolina finished 2-for-4 on the power play and only allowed the Solar Bears one opportunity on the man-advantage, which Joly converted on. The Rays also had the edge in shots by a 33-30 margin. Windsor also finished with 26 saves in goal for Orlando.
The two teams will conclude their three-game series Monday night at the Amway Center beginning at 7 p.m.
