NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays took a point from a 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Everblades on Saturday night.

Andrew Perrott, Grant Cruikshank and Kyler Kupka scored for the Stingrays, while Seth Eisele made 24 saves in the loss.

The Stingrays started the game aggressively, making eleven shots on goal compared to Florida’s five in the first period, making the Everblades’ goal uncomfortable. The Stingrays finished the opening period on the power play but were unable to cash in.

The Stingrays earned another power play opportunity ten minutes into the second period when Florida’s Colin Theisen was ejected for an interference penalty. Austin Magera won the ensuing faceoff to start the power play, and Alexander Suzdalev fed the puck cross-ice to Perrott, who buried his second goal of the season.

Cruikshank doubled the Stingray lead four minutes later. He took a cross-ice feed from Tyler Weiss and beat Florida netminder Will Cranley with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

The Everblades mounted a comeback less than a minute late when Colton Hargrove rebounded for his third goal of the season. Hargrove leads the Everblades with seven points this season.

The score remained tied until Kyle Betts tied the game 14:56 into the third period when he buried a centering shot by Florida’s Logan Lambdin.

In the last two minutes of the match, both teams scored mutual goals. Kupka redirected Tyler Weiss’ shot to give the Rays the lead with his team-leading second power-play goal of the season, but the Everblades responded 21 seconds later. With Cranley pulling an extra attacker, Florida’s Alex Kile buried his first goal of the season to make it a 3-3 hockey game.

Cranley made two stops in overtime before a rush from the Everblades’ Colin Theisen ended the game. With the win, Florida improved to 5-1-0-0, while South Carolina dropped to 3-1-1-0 on the season.

Rays Cancer Awareness Weekend continues tomorrow, Sunday afternoon, with a game against the Atlanta Gladiators at 3:05 p.m. The Stingrays will once again wear special white and purple jerseys.

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