The South Carolina Stingrays dropped a pair of road games to the Florida Everblades this past week, but it wasn’t a complete loss as the club picked up two valuable points in the standings. Through 61 of 72 regular season contests the Washington and Hershey affiliate remains atop the ECHL’s South Division with a 35-15-11 mark, twelve points ahead of second-place Florida.

The Stingrays would go the weekend minus one skater, with team captain Matt Scherer nursing a lower body injury. It didn’t seem to matter in the early going of Saturday’s game, though, as South Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead after twenty minutes on goals from Gregg Johnson (at 7:49) and younger brother Keith (at 16:53 and 19:02). Forward Trent Campbell, whose 41 assists ranked tied for fifth in the circuit, extended his point streak to 10 games with a pair of helpers in the opening frame.

The ‘Blades netted the second period’s lone marker, with Milan Gajic cashing in at 4:45 to halt goaltender Shane Connelly’s shutout streak at 217:33, less than 19 minutes shy of tying the ECHL record. Gajic would have a hand in Florida’s second goal, assisting on 2008-09 league MVP Kevin Baker’s tenth marker 94 seconds into period three.

Jake Hauswirth tallied on the man advantage at 4:06 to double-up the Everblades, 4-2, but Baker answered 36 seconds later to once again make it a one goal affair. Ernie Hartlieb completed Florida’s three goal turnaround at 11:46 to square matters at 4-4 and eventually force sudden death.

In overtime Baker potted the game-winner at 2:38 to send the ‘Blades to a 5-4 come-from-behind victory, finishing the hat trick and earning first star of the game honors in the process. Chris Beckford-Tseu turned aside 28 of 32 in 62-plus minutes for the win while Connelly suffered the setback with a 23-for-28 performance.

Looking to redeem themselves following Saturday’s night OT loss, SC got out to another multi-goal advantage, claiming a 2-0 lead in the second on defenseman Nick Klaren’s first ECHL goal at 8:42 before Hauswirth’s power play lamp-lighter just over two minutes later at 10:44. Hauswirth, who earned a playmaker on Klaren’s tally, has totaled eight points (2g, 6a) in the last four games.

The Stingrays registered a season-high 51 shots on the evening, including outshooting Florida over the second and third periods by a combined 39-13. In a repeat of Saturday’s effort, however, the Everblades roared back to tie it in the third on an even strength tally from Ross Carlson prior to Hartlieb’s man-up strike at 8:41, knotting the contest at deuces.

After neither club could trigger the red light in the latter half of the period or the five-minute overtime, a shootout – South Carolina’s tenth of the 2009-10 campaign – loomed for the division rivals. In the skills competition Colin Nicholson and Dominic Osman bested netminder Parker Van Buskirk while his counterpart, Beckford-Tseu, slammed the door shut on the Rays by stopping all four shots faced. The 3-2 loss dropped South Carolina to 5-3-3 for the month of February, but gave the defending Kelly Cup champions points in five straight games.

The Rays open the last full month of regular season action with two games on the slate, with the Cincinnati Cyclones visiting the North Charleston Coliseum for a pair of meetings on Friday and Sunday. SC, who has faced Cincy in the American Conference Finals the last two springs, is 0-1-1 versus the Cyclones in 2009-10.