The South Carolina Stingrays reeled off their second straight unbeaten week, taking all three games to push their win streak to seven and improve to 16-6-4 on the year. The team’s 36 points rank first in the American Conference and South Division, and stand one off the league’s best.

Friday in Gwinnett, the Stingrays were looking to complete a sweep in their five-game road trip, facing the Gladiators for the eighth time this season. South Carolina’s roster has been tweaked of late, with Michael Dubuc, Patrick Wellar, and Dylan Yeo moving up to Hershey, and Trevor Bruess and Jay Cascalenda joining the defending Kelly Cup champions. Even with the lineup changes, though, the Rays continue to add to the win column.

Matt Scherer led off the game’s scoring with his sixth of the year at 6:28 of the first period, with assists going to Rob Ricci and veteran Nate Kiser. Exactly five minutes later, with Bruess in the box for a hooking call, Adam Berti coverted the power play opportunity to knot the game at 1-1.

Following a scoreless second stanza, Nikita Kashirsky elevated SC to its second lead of the night in the third, tallying his team-leading twelfth goal, a man advantage strike, at 11:54. Spencer Carbery added an empty-netter with eleven seconds remaining to solidify the visitors’ fifth victory in as many contests, upping their record to 11-2-2 away from the North Charleston Coliseum.

Todd Ford turned aside 30 of 31 shots to record the win while Danny Taylor saw his three-game win streak against the Rays come to an end, finishing with 26 saves.

Back from their road jaunt, South Carolina settled in for a five-game homestand, starting with back-to-back contests against the Elmira Jackals. And the Stingrays, home for the first time in nearly two weeks, exploded for their biggest first period since opening night, ringing up four goals on Jackals goaltender Michael-Lee Teslak.

Keith Johnson started the onslaught with a power play marker 86 ticks in, collecting his eighth on playmakers from Trent Campbell and Kashirsky. The rookie out of Norwich University – Keith Aucoin’s former stomping grounds – scored one of his own three minutes later, followed by Josh Godfrey’s lamp-lighter at 6:20 to propel the Rays to an early 3-0 advantage.

Justin Donati and Elmira got on the scoreboard at 12:30, but Rob Ricci’s even strength goal with 24 seconds remaining in the opening frame once again gave SC a three-goal cushion.

Chanse Fitzpatrick and Donati’s second of the contest, both scored in the second, were as much as the visitors could muster, however, and Ricci’s tally stood as the game-winner as Cail MacLean’s club improved to .500 at home (4-4-2) with a 4-3 victory, giving the organization a clean sweep in Saturday’s action.

Godfrey (1g, 1a), who finished with his first multi-point game of the season, garnered first star of the game honors while Braden Holtby claimed his fourth straight win with a 27-save effort.

Looking to close the book on another perfect week, the Rays took to the ice Sunday with the backend of the two-game set against former Bear Steve Martinson’s Jackals. It was the sixth meeting all-time between the two clubs, with South Carolina emerging the victor in four of the previous five.

Just as Gavin Morgan kicked off Sunday’s 9-2 annihilation of Hartford at Giant Center with a short-handed goal, South Carolina’s Keith Johnson did the same at the North Charleston Coliseum, beating Pier-Olivier Pelletier with a man down at 7:06 of the second period, triggering a shower of 1,300-plus stuffed animals to the ice in the team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss night.

Only nine seconds later, though, the Jackals knotted it on Mat Robinson’s power play strike, his first of the season.

In the third, however, Matt Fornataro continued to have the hot hands, bagging a pair of goals separated by less than three minutes, including a power play marker, as SC jumped ahead to 3-1. Fornataro now has 12 points in his last six games for the Stingrays, who never looked back and rolled to their seventh straight win, their longest streak in the regular season in 20 months.

Todd Ford, whose nine wins are tied for second in the circuit, surrendered just one goal for the second consecutive contest, sweeping away 34 of 35 shots as South Carolina climbed to 15-0-3 when scoring at least three goals. Pelletier, making his professional debut, tasted defeat as the Rays connected three times on a season-low 21 shots on net.

The Stingrays host the Trenton Devils on Friday and Saturday before welcoming the Charlotte Checkers to close out the week on Sunday.