Bird scores twice for Solar Bears in 6-3 loss to Stingrays

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Despite two goals from Tyler Bird to build a 2-1 lead in the first period, the Orlando Solar Bears (20-14-3-1) allowed the South Carolina Stingrays (16-13-6-2) to go on a four-goal run en route to a 6-3 loss on Saturday night at North Charleston Coliseum to snap Orlando’s three-game win streak and split the weekend series.

VIEW BOX SCORE

Bird opened the scoring with a shorthanded marker at 12:51 of the first period from Aaron Luchuk and Alexander Kuqali for his seventh of the season.

After Cam Askew scored at 18:14 to tie the game at 1-1, Bird bagged his second of the contest when he batted a pass from Tristin Langan out of mid-air past Alex Dubeau at 18:48.

The Stingrays then proceeded to score four unanswered goals between the second and third periods, as Askew found the back of the net seven minutes into the middle stanza to tie the game once again, and Dylan Steman beat Kris Oldham at 8:40 to give South Carolina the lead.

South Carolina piled on with goals from Mark Cooper at 9:17 of the third period and Steman adding another at 10:19, before Joe Garreffa tallied his first with the Solar Bears at 11:37.

The Stingrays capped the scoring with a goal from Brett Supinski at 14:45.

Oldham took the first loss of his pro career with 25 saves on 31 shots against; Dubeau went 29-for-32 to earn the win for South Carolina.

THREE STARS:1) Dylan Steman - SC2) Cameron Askew - SC3) Dan DeSalvo - SC 

NOTABLES:

• The Solar Bears are now 3-1-0-0 against South Carolina this season
• Saturday’s game marked the second consecutive game that Orlando had scored a shorthanded goal; the club has five this season
• The loss was Orlando’s first in regulation this season when leading after the first period (10-1-2-0)  

NEXT GAME:

The Solar Bears close out the weekend series against the Stingrays on Sunday, March 28 at 3:05 p.m. The Solar Bears are back home when they host Burrito Day Bash, presented by Qdoba, against the Florida Everblades at the AdventHealth Rink at Amway Center on Thursday, April 1 p.m. at 7 p.m.