Recap
The second-place Sting Rays handed the Sand Sharks their first loss of the season by a score of 8-4. The Sand Sharks scored first when Andrew Shillings netted a power play goal with 12:53 left in the first period. The Sting Rays answered twenty-five seconds later on a shorty by Cameron Smalley in his first appearance in the FIHL playing as a pool player. The Sting Rays took a 2-1 lead with 6:01 left in the first on a goal by Tyler McDuffie. The Sting Rays went up 3-1 early in the second period when Smalley scored his second goal of the game with 18:19 left in the period. Smalley would then leave the game due to a lacerated ear on a high sticking play and would not return. The Sand Sharks answered less than three minutes later with goal by Chadwick Sieler to cut the Sting Rays’ lead to 3-2. The Sting Rays again took a two-goal lead when Erik LaFlamme scored with 10:42 left in the second, then went up 5-2 when McDuffie scored a power play goal with 6:03 left in the second period. The Sand Sharks cut the lead to 5-3 with 15:51 left in the third period on a goal by Julian Pontoni before the Sting Rays answered with 5:09 left on a goal by Alex Myers. The Sand Sharks’ Shillings scored a shorty with 3:29 left in regulation, and less than a minute later the Sting Rays’ Myers scored on the power play. The Sting Rays closed out the scoring on a goal by Tristan Bernard with thirty-two seconds left in regulation for the 8-4 victory. The Sting Rays’ LaFlamme had two assists to go along with his goal, and teammates Ben Morgan and Hayden Kimmel each contributed two assists. The Sand Sharks’ Nathan Souza had two assists. The Sharks used both netminders in the loss with neither goalie being very happy with their results. Shots on goal were Sting Rays 48, Sand Sharks 31.