Greenville, SC—After a few days of rest from winning seven consecutive games on the road, the Swamp Rabbits are returning back home at Bon Secours Arena for two games against the Gladiators and Stingrays. With much surprise and excitement to see Greenville go red hot in the ECHL, there are a few things to look out for and expect today against division rivals Atlanta Gladiators and tomorrow against SC Stingrays.
First and foremost are the players. Now, there are a lot of players who have really stood out on this team, so I will choose just a few to keep this direct. Starting with the first player is forward Carter Souch, who has been a bullet train in scoring and assisting on and off the power play. Souch, in his last seven games played, has tallied up three goals and four assists. Right now, Souch has a total of eight goals and nine assists. The Next player is another forward, Brannon McManus, who is the team’s leading assist maker. McManus has played sixteen games; so far, he’s tallied up two goals and twelve assists. In his last seven games on the road, he’s posted a goal with six assists. It’s possible that McManus will gain more confidence to shoot more, along with maintaining that assist-making tenacity in the next coming games. Now, the next player is defenseman L.A Grissom. Grissom has been excellent on the backchecking and forechecking, along with blocking shots and shooting on net. In the game played against the Stingrays on November 24, Grissom scored two goals on just three shots on goal. Grissom only played four of seven games on the road from the last two weeks, but with d-men Tyler Inamoto and Wyatte Wylie being called up from AHL Ontario, he’ll likely play the next two games at home and possibly get more power play unit time.
Next players’ to really keep an eye out for are goaltenders Ryan Bednard and Jacob Ingham. Both tendies have had phenomenal success in the crease lately, as Jacob Ingham has played nine games while Bednard has only played seven. Ingham has won seven of his last nine games, and Bednard has won all seven games he’s tended. For Ingham, he has a goals-against average of 2.88%, with a 0.915% save percentage; he also has the one and only shootout win for the Rabbits, as of right now. Bednard has a 1.84% GAA, with a 0.945 save percentage; he also recorded a 5-0 shutout win in Atlanta on November 25. Their statistics, however, don’t come with great surprise, as their professional experience and AHL contracts would make them highly skilled netminders—who, yes, can stop pucks.
Finally, the last thing to keep an eye out for is the Rabbits’ powerplay and penalty-killing units. After concluding their two-week road trip, the Rabbits posted 504 saves with a total netminder save percentage at 0.926%. Furthermore, they have twelve goals and twenty-two assists on the PP, with sixty goals and 102 assists in sixteen games played.
The Rabbits’ will play two games this weekend, December 1st and 2nd, with the first game being against the Glads and the second against the Stingrays. The December 2nd game against SC will also be the Rabbits seasonal Teddy Bear Toss, a hockey tradition for a great cause.
