GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITS FALL SHORT OF ATLANTA GLADIATORS 5-4
By Mark Shelley, Grenville Swamp Rabbits
Duluth, GA – Despite a late goal by Alex Ierullo, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits fell short of the Atlanta Gladiators, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Gas South Arena.
The Swamp Rabbits came out swinging, peppering the Atlanta goal in the opening 10 minutes of the game. At 5:00, Brett Kemp gave Greenville the 1-0 lead after deflecting a rebounding puck off his skate and into the net for his 16th goal of the season.
Atlanta tied the game just 1:22 into the second period, as Noah Laaouan scored from just inside the blue line. Greenville responded at 11:12, as Anthony Beauchamp scored his ninth of the
season to give the Swamp Rabbits the 2-1 advantage. At 15:12, Sanghoon Shin scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal to tie the game at 2-2. Less than two minutes later, at 17:02, Kemp sniped his second of the game into the Atlanta net before Mike Pelech tied the game at 3-3 just 10 seconds later.
In the third, Atlanta took its first lead of the night at 4:20, as Mitch Walinski scored his first career goal. After three consecutive penalties kept the Swamp Rabbits’ offense off the ice, the Gladiators scored the empty-net goal from Shin to take a 5-3 lead. With six seconds left, Alex Ierullo brought the Swamp Rabbits within one with his 23rd goal of the season, but the Rabbits would fail to find the tying goal before time expired.
With the loss, the Swamp Rabbits improve to 32-19-7-1, while the Gladiators improve to 31-23-5-1.
The Swamp Rabbits return home to Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Friday night for a 7:05 p.m. meeting with the South Carolina Stingrays.
