Charlotte, NC –The South Carolina Stingrays (21-6-1-3) defeated the Charlotte Checkers (14-8-3-1) 4-3 Friday night in front of 4,317 at Time Warner Cable Arena. Forward Rob Ricci tallied a goal and an assist as the Stingrays pushed their winning streak to 12 games, tying a franchise record.

Stingrays rookie Nikita Kashirsky started the scoring at 9:31 of the first period beating Checkers goaltender Ryan Munce. Kashirsky started the rush down the right-wing boards with Checkers defenseman Mike Berube pushing him along the wall. Kashirsky dipped the left shoulder, carved around the bottom of the right circle and tucked home his 17 goal of the season under the blocker of Munce. Defenseman Josh Godfrey earned the lone assist. The Checkers tied the contest at one thanks to Andrew Carroll’s ninth of the season at 18:00 from Mike Harder and Aaron Slattengren.

The Stingrays reclaimed the lead on the power play at 14:29 of the second period thanks to forward Matt Scherer from Matt Fornataro and Rob Ricci. Ricci netted a goal of his own at 15:55 to give the Stingrays a 3-1 lead at the end of 40 minutes of play. Rookie Dain Prewitt received an assist on Ricci’s eleventh goal of the season.

South Carolina added an early third-period marker from Keith Johnson at 1:25 from Trent Campbell to go up 4-1. The Checkers responded with a goal at 10:05 from Jean-Philipp Chabot. Forwards Tyler Doig and Kenny Roche picked up the assists. Checkers forward Mike Harder pulled the score within one at 13:41 beating Stingrays goaltender Todd Ford with a power-play goal. Slattengren and Doig both recorded assists. Ford finished the night stopping 36 of 39 Checkers shots while Munce kicked away 21 of 25 Stingrays opportunities. The Stingrays ended the evening 1-for-4 on the power play. The Checkers finished the night 1-for-5.

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