Greenville gets within a goal, slumps late

BY: Jordan Kuhns, Greenville Swamp Rabbits

BOXSCORE

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Down 3-0 early in the second period, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits made a strong move to claw within a single goal. However, late mistakes pushed the South Carolina Stingrays ahead, eventually for good, in a 6-2 win over Greenville on Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The Swamp Rabbits allowed a goal in the first 1:15 of the second from Joey Leach, but the Swamp Rabbits started their comeback. Will Merchant connected for his fifth goal of the season three minutes after South Carolina’s goal to get on the board. Chris Izmirlian and Thomas Ebbing bagged assists on the goal.

Tad Kozun’s costly hooking minor penalty led to Greenville’s second goal. Good D-to-D puck movement from Jake Bolton from Sean Flanagan got a shot from the point through. With Stingrays goaltender Gordon Defiel down and out, Michael Pelech pounced on the rebound and scored into an empty net to cut the lead to one just five minutes later.

Quick mistakes, however, turned the game.

A turnover at the offensive blue line led to a two-on-one break. Matt Pohlkamp ripped a shot from the left circle, and while Swamp Rabbits goaltender Garrett Bartus got a piece of the puck on a save, the shot bounced off of the post and into the goal to give the Rays its two-goal lead back. Then, after a penalty immediately after that, Cameron Askew scored his second goal of the game to re-establish the three-goal advantage.

Christian Horn added an empty-netter for the Rays in the third period to seal the game away.

Greenville was outshot 12-3 in the first period and escaped the first period down just 2-0 on goals by Patrick Gaul and Askew. After that point, the Swamp Rabbits went on a shot crusade, outshooting the 32-19 for the rest of the game, but it was the Stingrays that outscored the Rabbits 4-2 the rest of the way.

The Stingrays extended their winning streak to five games. The Swamp Rabbits dropped all three games on the weekend.

After a few days off, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits head to Duluth, Georgia to take on the Atlanta Gladiators at 7:30 p.m. Catch all of the action on ESPN Upstate, or on ECHL.TV.

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