Greenville holds on to lead, hands Jacksonville rare home loss
BY: Jordan Kuhns, Greenville Swamp Rabbits
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Icemen entered play on Friday night 10-2-0-0 at home. The Greenville Swamp Rabbits added one to their loss column. Up 4-0, and having survived a storm late, the Swamp Rabbits picked up a key road win, and defeated the Icemen 5-4 in regulation time on Friday night at the Veterans Memorial Arena.
Austen Brassard‘s goal early in the third period on the power play proved to be enough for Greenville. Following an early Jacksonville strike from Maxime Fortier at the 1:26 mark of the third, Brassard countered in earnest. Michael Pelech, with his third assist of the night, spotted his longtime linemate for his second goal of the night to give Greenville a 5-3 lead, a power play goal.
The Icemen made the game interesting on a power play at the midpoint of the third period. Justin Woods, while fading away, fired a wrist shot from straight away that had eyes and evaded the clutches of new goaltender Chris Nell, and pulled Jacksonville back within one for the second time in the third period. But from then on, Nell, and the rest of the defense pulled through.
The Swamp Rabbits, like last time against the Icemen, and like the last four games they had taken part in, grabbed a hold of the lead. A 4-0 lead, in fact.
Stephen Pierog got the scoring started for the Swamp Rabbits on the night with his third of the season. Sprung on a partial break down the left wing, button-hooked and found space to snap a shot that fooled Tanner Jaillet and found paydirt.
The second period saw Greenville strike thrice unanswered. Brassard fired home his first of the night on a rush of his own to double the lead. Will Merchant, on a clear-cut Jacksonville giveaway, made it 3-0 just two minutes later. Thomas Ebbing capped the second period scoring for the visitors on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Chris Izmirlian and Trevor Owens.
Jacksonville, much like a week ago, did not quit.
Kole Sherwood and Fortier found the net within three minutes of each other in the second period to cut the Greenville lead in half. Fortier continued his strong night with his second goal of the night, and third of the season, just 1:26 into the third.
Brassard’s goal stemmed the momentum and ultimately stood as the game-winning tally.
Nell, in his Swamp Rabbits re-debut, picked up the win with 19 saves on the night.
The Swamp Rabbits conclude their trip to Jacksonville on Saturday, November 24 against the Jacksonville Icemen. Catch all of the action on the Swamp Rabbits Broadcast Network, or on the ECHL’s dedicated streaming video provider, ECHL.TV.
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