ECHL: Road Trip Recap: Swamp Rabbits Dominate on the Road, gaining the Top of The League

After dominating on the road during their first road trip of the season, the Swamp Rabbits continued their division-bound road trip with three games and, once again, dominated. Now, what do I mean by dominating? Well, I mean that the team is showing high numbers of power play and penalty-killing execution, along with sturdy discipline and leadership. After winning all four games on the road last week, the Rabbits were hungry for even more wins, as they began the week at Atlanta.

Game Five Recap—November 22nd, 2023—Gas South Arena, Atlanta

The first period of game one started strong for the Glads, as they posted three shots on goal before scoring at 7:57 by Blake Evennou. After the goal, Atlanta put up more shots on Ryan Bernard; Greenville seemed to get trampled on and struggled to even shoot on netminder Tyler Harmon, as they only fired eight shots on goal before Wyatte Wylie found the back of the net, tieing the game at one.

Heading into the 2nd period, the Rabbits had a strong start, as they would be rewarded a power play just a minute into the period. From the powerplay, they would get four shots on Harmon before getting another man advantage. At 4:16, the Rabbits would receive a five-on-three-man advantage for two minutes, as Gladiators Mitch Walinski and Jacob Graves got summoned to the sin bin for different minor penalties. However, the Gladiators would do a good job preventing the Bits from producing quality shots on their netminder Harmon. At around 8:50, a poorly timed line change for the Gladiators would usher in momentum for the Rabbits, as Nikita Pavlychev would rush down to the Gladiators zone on the left-wing end to feed an uncovered pass for Carter Souch to one-time the puck past Harmon. Souch has been a heavy shooter for the Rabbits, as he has eight goals and assists after the three-game road trip, and thanks to Pavlychev being back on the roster, the team is very much setting the south division ablaze. After Souch’s goal, the Gladiators reset the momentum to be in their favor for the remainder of the period, shooting 14 times on Bednard. Bednard denied all of those shots, some of which were very close to making it a tie game.

Now for the 3rd period. At 6:02, Nikita Pavlychev receives a pass from McManus to tip the puck past Harmon and make it 3-1. At around 8:00 into the 3rd, the Glads and Bits would trade off offensive pressure before Atlanta eventually scored at 9:20 by Carson Gicewicz. After the Glads goal, both teams would respectively try to score; however, all attempts would be denied by both teams’ goaltenders and defensive units. So therefore, after sixty minutes of hockey, the Rabbits would narrowly take game Five on the road.

Game Six—November 24th, 2023—North Charleston Coliseum, South Carolina

Opening up game six at South Carolina, the Rabbits would dominate the first five minutes of play by applying intense pressure on Mitchell Gibson’s net. The Rabbits would shoot fourteen shots on Gibson, while the Stingrays only had seven shots on Ingham. After the first, the score would remain scoreless.

At 6:15, Austin Magera would open up scoring from an assist by Michael Kim. However, the Rabbits would retaliate seconds later at 6:39 as L.A Grissom would score at center in Ray’s zone from a corner pass by Nick Prkusic. But the Rabbits weren’t done with scoring yet. At 9:00, J.D Greenway would manage to keep the puck in the offensive zone and shoot a wrister at Gibson to create a rebound opportunity for Prkusic to score on. The score would now be 2-1 Bits and stay that way for the remainder of the 2nd period.

Entering into the 3rd: after two minutes in, the Stingrays held the momentum, shooting seven times before eventually drawing a penalty and handing over that momentum to the opposing team. After the powerplay expired, the Rabbits still kept up the pressure and rendered a goal by Brannon McManus. McManus grabbed seven points in just four games played on the road, as he’s been a valuable passer for a chunk of the Rabbits’ goals. And then, at 11:21, L.A Grissom would shoot a long-range wrist shot at Gibson and score his second of the game. After the goal by Grissom, the Rabbits tried to keep the game at 4-1 but failed to do so, as Josh Wilkins netted a goal to make it 4-2 at 15:14. After several attempts to score again, the Stingrays’ would pull Gibson for the extra attacker and execute phenomenally, as they scored at 19:22 by Tyson Empey. At 19:30, the Stingrays’ coaching staff would pull Gibson again for the extra man; however, their last-minute attempts would be denied by Ingham and the Rabbits’ defense. The Swamp Rabbits would once again take another narrow victory and add another dub to their win streak before closing out in Atlanta.

Game Seven—25, November 2023—Gas South Arena, Atlanta

For their final game on the long two-week road trip, the Bits would conclude in Atlanta for another rematch. Like the Rabbits, the Gladiators would, too, be playing a back-to-back game, as they won the previous game in Savannah. Tired legs for both teams? Well, not exactly… The first 20 minutes was an on-and-off sort of situation for both teams, as the Rabbits shot a few times on Gustavs Grigals before handing over the pressure to Atlanta after the five-minute mark. After several minutes of both teams pressuring the opponent’s respective zones, the Rabbits’ would open up scoring at 9:40 by Colton Young from an assist by Prkusic. And then, at 14:22, Max Martin fed a pass to Pavlychev for him to increase the Rabbits’ score to 2-0.

Into the 2nd period, the Rabbits went on a scoring spree, as Carter Souch would net his eighth goal of the season at 1:08. But, wait, there’s more… At 1:39, Ben Freeman would score his fourth of the season to make it 4-0. After the goal by Freeman, the Gladiators would only post a single shot on Bednard before another Greenville goal at 5:12 by Ethan Somoza. The Rabbits were on fire while the Glads were sinking. Tired legs, no motivation, and poor discipline to execute for Atlanta. Even on the penalty kill, the Rabbits simply ran over the Gladiators and posted shots on goal, as the Glads didn’t have a shot on Bednard for that whole powerplay. Nine shots on Grigals were posted after the goal by Somoza, while the Glads only posted two shots on Bednard.

The 3rd period was a do-or-die for Atlanta, as the score was 5-0, with Greenville likely to not give up any goals without a fight. Throughout the 3rd period, Atlanta only posted five shots on Bednard. Perhaps the lack of pressure and execution was due to the fact that they took six penalties in just 20 minutes (one of which was only a game misconduct). However, even struggling to score a single goal, there is credit due to the Gladiator’s defense: they managed to kill five two-minute minor penalties against the red-hot Swamp Rabbits. The Rabbits have had an excellent powerplay experience for this season. After a full sixty minutes of hockey, the Rabbits would take a 5-0 victory against Atlanta, increasing their win streak to seven on the road and also giving Ryan Bednard his seventh career shutout as a Swamp Rabbit.

The Swamp Rabbits have been red hot lately, and there are a few reasons for this, but one of the reasons is because of their powerful powerplay unit and roster of players being incredible shooters. However, they have some kinks to get rid of ahead of returning home on December 1st against Atlanta.