SWAMP RABBITS STUNG BY RIVALS ON 11/8
Swamp Rabbits end power play scoring drought, but South Carolina capitalizes in the second for the win
By: Mark Binetti, Greenville Swamp Rabbits
(NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.) – Tate Singleton scored his first goal as a Swamp Rabbit and Brent Pedersen ended the team’s power play scoring drought, but the South Carolina Stingrays hit pay dirt four times in the second period to claim a 5-2 win on Friday night. The losses pushes the Swamp Rabbits current skid to three consecutive games.
Jayden Lee provided the only goal of the first period, claiming his first professional goal to give the hosts an advantage after 20 minutes. At 6:35 of the first, the Stingrays came into the Swamp Rabbits zone two-on-two, which turned odd-man after a Greenville defender lost an edge. Lee crept in from the right side to increase the Stingrays numbers, and finished a passing sequence by Swamp Rabbits netminder Dryden McKay to push South Carolina to a 1-0 lead (Josh Wilkins and Jamie Engelbert assisted).
South Carolina continued its offensive early in the second period, with Grant Cruikshank scoring his third of the season. Just 73 seconds into the second, the puck was turned over on the wall in the Swamp Rabbits zone, where Alexander Suzdalev found Cruikshank in the right circle, blasting a one-timer past McKay to double the lead to 2-0 (Suzdalev and Micah Miller assisted). Moments later following a Swamp Rabbits successful penalty kill, Tyler Weiss snuck in from the left side of the zone and potted one by McKay to inflate the Stingrays advantage to 3-0 at 6:12 (Suzdalev and Cruikshank assisted).
Swamp Rabbits Head Coach Kyle Mountain called at timeout following the third tally to get his team on the same page and it paid off immediately. Exactly 34 seconds later, Tate Singleton buried his first goal as a Swamp Rabbit off a drop pass from Kaleb Lawrence from the left side. Singleton rifled the hand off past the earhole of Stingrays goalie Seth Eisele to cut the deficit to 3-1 at 6:46 (Lawrence earned his first professional point in his debut, Patrick Moynihan picked up the other assist). The goal sparked the Swamp Rabbits’ urgency, but South Carolina struck twice within 90 seconds to continue pulling away. Erik Middendorf snuck the puck past McKay in a scrambly net-front sequence after Austin Magera had a one-timer denied by McKay’s glove. His follow through of the glove save dislodged the puck from his own glove, and Middendorf’s questionable nature of putting the puck in the net warranted a review, which upheld the call on the ice and made it a 4-1 Stingrays lead with 4:42 left in the second (Magera and Blake Thompson assisted). Just 72 seconds later, a long range pass caught the Swamp Rabbits in a change and left Engelbert and Suzdalev all alone. Suzdalev slipped the final Stingrays goal through McKay’s legs to vault the South Carolina lead to 5-1 with 3:30 remaining in the frame. McKay was replaced by Ingham, who finished the rest of the game in net for Greenville.
Brent Pedersen built some momentum in the final period on the game’s final Swamp Rabbits power play to close the gap to three. With 7:37 left in regulation, the Swamp Rabbits transitioned with speed into the Stingray’s zone and came to a screeching halt in a net-front pileup. Pedersen somehow managed to thwart the chaos of the moment and push the puck over the goal line, and upon review, found a good goal to bring the Swamp Rabbits to a 5-2 final score (Carter Savoie and Bobby Russell assisted).
Dryden McKay stopped 16 of 21 shots at 36:30 at the start, suffering the defeat (1-2-1-0). Jacob Ingham played the remaining 23:30 in relief and turned aside all seven shots he saw.
The Swamp Rabbits continue their first “three-in-three” of the season back home for “Star Wars Night,” presented by Champion Comfort Experts, against the Atlanta Gladiators. Puck drop for the best game in the galaxy is slated for 7:05 p.m. EST tomorrow, November 9th, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. It features a Michelob Ultra Pregame Party on the Furman Plaza and a lightsaber giveaway to the first 1,000 fans. The weekend concludes with a rematch trip to Atlanta on Sunday, November 10th, with the weekend finale starting at 3:05 p.m. at Gas South Arena.
About the Greenville Swamp Rabbits …
Acquired by Spire Sports + Entertainment (SS+E) in 2020, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team has been providing family-friendly, live entertainment at Bon Secours Wellness Arena since 2010. Formerly, the Greenville Road Warriors and the Swamp Rabbits are the highest-level professional minor league franchise in South Carolina. The Swamp Rabbits are the proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s LA Kings and the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Greenville is an ECHL Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League member.
