SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Savannah Ghost Pirates broke a franchise record for goals in a game and earned their first win of the season with a 9–4 victory over the South Carolina Stingrays on Thursday night at Enmarket Arena.
The Ghost Pirates opened the scoring at 15:49 of the first period when Riley Hughes buried a rebound off a Keaton Pehrson shot to make it 1–0. Josh Lopina picked up the secondary assist on the play.
Savannah extended its lead early in the second period when Robert Mastrosimone lit the lamp on the power play to make it 2–0.
Moments later, Josh Davies backhanded in his first goal of the season from the right side at 7:09 to push the lead to 3–0.
South Carolina responded when Josh Wilkins exited the penalty box and scored on a breakaway to cut the deficit to 3–1.
The Ghost Pirates answered with a pair of goals from Nicholas Zabaneh, who struck twice to make it 5–1 before the end of the period. Zabaneh’s second goal chased Stingrays goaltender Seth Eisele from the game.
South Carolina clawed back in the third period with three straight goals from John Fusco, Kyler Kupka, and Romain Rodzinski, trimming the lead to 5–4.
Savannah regained control when Hughes netted his second of the night off a rebound from Hunter Johannes to make it 6–4.
From there, the Ghost Pirates poured it on — Cristophe Tellier, Evan Nause, and Philip Waugh each scored their first goals of the season to seal the 9–4 win.
Dennis Cesana tied a franchise record with four assists in the victory, while Evan Cormier earned the win with 25 saves on 29 shots. Antoine Keller took the loss in relief for South Carolina.
The Ghost Pirates return to home ice Saturday night when they host the Jacksonville Icemen at 7:00 p.m. for Pink in the Rink Night, presented by Memorial Health. Fans can stream the game live on FloHockey or listen on Mixlr. For ticket information and more, visit ghostpirateshockey.com.
— GHOST PIRATES —
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