Netminder stops 37 of 39 & both shootout attempts to push the team before Thanksgiving
By: Mark Binetti, Greenville Swamp Rabbits
(DULUTH, GA) – Parker Berge scored for a third straight game, and Dryden McKay continued to stand tall, stopping 37 of 39 shots and both shooters past overtime to lead the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to a 3-2 shootout win over the Atlanta Gladiators on Thanksgiving Eve. The win gives the Swamp Rabbits five in a row dating back to November 17th against Florida and eight wins in their last nine going as far back as November 9th against Atlanta.
Tate Singleton provided the game’s only goal for the longest time in the first two periods. Just 61 seconds in, Singleton chased down a loose puck near the side of the Atlanta net, tracked it down, and while diving and sliding, slipped the puck past Ethan Haider in net for the Gladiators, giving the Swamp Rabbits a 1-0 lead (Colton Young and Miles Gendron assisted). Dryden McKay faced a 15-shot barrage in the opening 20 minutes, turning aside all of them to keep the Swamp Rabbits in front. Towards the end of the period, Mikael Robidoux was assessed a game misconduct for boarding, putting the Swamp Rabbits down a forward the rest of the game and on a major penalty kill that carried over to the second period.
The Swamp Rabbits, boasting the #2 penalty kill in the league, stopped the threat, but the Gladiators found an equalizer in the final minute of the second. With 34.8 seconds remaining, Carson Denomie took a Jackson Pierson pass from behind the Swamp Rabbits net on the left side and fired a shot from a sharp angle on McKay. He barely threaded it under his blocker arm on the near post to tie the game at 1-1 going into the last period (Pierson and Eric Neiley assisted).
Parker Berge, one of the hot hands for the Swamp Rabbits recently, broke the deadlock early in the final frame to once again put the Swamp Rabbits in front. With 2:01 gone by in the third, Berge came off the blue line almost parallel with the goal line and finagled a shot by Haider, scoring for a third straight game to put the Swamp Rabbits up 2-1 (Patrick Moynihan assisted). Once again, though, Atlanta found a counter in Derek Topatigh, who finished a transition two-on-one with Jackson Pierson, burying his pass to square the game at 2-2 with 10:49 left in regulation (Pierson and Neiley assisted). Moments later, Swamp Rabbits Captain Ben Freeman was penalized on a breakaway, drawing a penalty shot with 9:20 left in the game. Haider stopped Freeman, and the game eventually went to overtime.
Overtime was a back-and-forth battle, and Patriks Marcinkevics almost ended the game for Atlanta before the buzzer. As time wound down, Marcinkevics went on a breakaway, denied by McKay’s glove right before the clock hit triple-zero, forcing a shootout between the rivals. Bryce Brodzinski and Jackson Pierson traded misses in the opening round, followed by Patrick Moynihan burying a wrist shot in the top of the second round to put the Swamp Rabbits up midway. After McKay stoned Cody Sylvester, the game was on Colton Young’s stick to win it for Greenville. A score would win it, which he did with a wrister of his own to give the Swamp Rabbits the second point and a fifth straight win by a 3-2 count after 67 minutes.
Dryden McKay, who has been in net every game during this streak, turned aside 37 of 39 shots in 67 minutes and went 2/2 in the shootout (7-3-1-0).
The Swamp Rabbits will now celebrate Thanksgiving and, following the holiday, turn to the second stage of their road trip against the South Carolina Stingrays. Puck drop on Friday night is slated for 7:05 p.m. EST at North Charleston Coliseum.
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.
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