Jackals Stage Comeback To Defeat Stingrays At Sold-out First Arena

November 12, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Elmira Jackals News Release


The Elmira Jackals overcame a two-goal deficit on Friday night at First Arena, scoring four-unanswered goals to defeat the South Carolina Stingrays 5-3 in front of 4,007 fans. The victory was the first for Elmira against South Carolina since December of 2008.

After the Stingrays scored to make it 1-0 on a Maxime Lacroix goal at 11:46 of the first period, Justin Donati tied the game up from the right circle, shooting a puck over the right shoulder of Stingrays netminder Shane Connelly to even the score, 1-1, at 18:20.

In the second period, a pair of Stingrays goals gave South Carolina a two-goal advantage. Pierre-Luc O'Brien skated from the left circle to the net and lifted a puck over the glove of Elmira goaltender Marco Cousineau to make it 2-1 at 3:35, and David de Kastrozza scored his first professional goal from the right circle to increase the lead to 3-1 at the 7:27 mark.

Oren Eizenman redirected a Yannick Tifu feed in the slot glove-side past Connelly to bring Elmira to within one, 3-2, with 1:33 remaining in the second period.

Michael Dubuc's league-leading 10th goal of the season tied the game early in the third period. The former Stingray had his blue-line shot blocked, but then Dubuc skated to the left circle and wristed a shot high-glove over Connelly to make it 3-3 at 5:18 of the third.

The game remained tied for the next ten minutes until John de Gray's wrist shot found the top part of the net at 15:21, which gave Elmira its first lead of the game, one it would not relinquish. The goal was de Gray's second of the season and his first game winner of the 2010-2011 campaign. Eric Regan cycled the puck from the right side to Ryan Hillier on the end boards, who fed de Gray in the left circle to create the scoring opportunity.

Hillier's empty netter at 19:56 of the third gave the Jackals a 5-3 lead and sealed the victory for Elmira.

Cousineau stopped 18 of 21 shots to improve to 4-1-3-0 on the season. Connelly's record dropped to 2-2-1-0 with a 27-save effort on 31 shots.

Eizenman's goal extended his scoring streak to six games (2g-8a), while Dubuc's streak lengthened to five games (4g-4a).

The sellout was the Jackals' second of the season. Elmira led the league in sellouts in each of its first three seasons in the ECHL.

Elmira hosts Trenton on Saturday at First Arena, with the puck dropping at 7:35 p.m.



ECHL Stories from November 12, 2010


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