Worcester Drops Weekend Finale to Stingrays, 4-2

By Bill BallouWORCESTER – The Worcester Railers fell to the South Carolina Stingrays by a 4-2 final on Sunday afternoon to wrap up the teams fifth three-in-three weekend of the season. The loss overshadowed a fabulous return from Bridgeport by forward Jimmy Lambert. He set up the first Worcester goal to make it a 2-1 game, then finished a sensational individual effort to make it 2-2 just 32 seconds into the the third period.However, Kevin O’Neil responded with a goal for South Carolina at 3:38 to put the Stingrays back in the lead and Tarek Baker hit an empty net at 19:11 to nail it down. Brent Moran stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced for Worcester. South Carolina goaltender Clay Stevenson made 27 saves and he was really, really good in two appearances over the weekend.Stevenson looks a lot like former IceCats goaltender Frederic Cassivi, who had a great pro career. Stevenson, a rookie, is off to a great start in his. He was 3-0-0 with the AHL Hershey Bears and is 12-3-4 for South Carolina.Anthony Repaci had the other Railers goal. Bear Hughes and Andrew Cherniwchan had the other Stingrays goals.Hughes got the game’s first goal, putting the visitors ahead by 1-0 at 4:57 of the first period. He beat Moran with a wrist shot to the blocker side from about 25 feet out.Cherniwchan, who played here against the Sharks in 2014-15 when he was with the Providence Bruins, gave South Carolina a 2-0 lead with a power play goal at 11:15 of the second period. Ryan Scarfo found Cherniwchan alone in the left circle and Moran had no chance to get across in time to make the save.The Railers cut their deficit in half at 16:42 on Repaci’s goal. Lambert made a terrific play to set it up as he circled around the offensive zone, drew defenders in his direction, then found Repaci alone outside the left post.Lambert’s dynamic solo rush to open the third period got the crowd aroused and gave the Railers some momentum but Stevenson held them off and his teammates took advantage of his excellence to get the last two goals of the game.MAKING TRACKS – The Railers’ next three games are against the Reading Royals, two of them at the DCU Center. Worcester plays at Reading Tuesday morning, then the Royals are in town for games on Friday and Saturday nights. … Jack Quinlivan, Philip Beaulieu, Jared Brandt and Ken Appleby are on injured reserve. Liam Coughlin, Noah Delmas, Nolan Vesey, and Collin Adams were the other Railers who did not dress for the game. In contrast, Zack Bross returned to the lineup.#AllAboutTheW