Greenville, SC—The Swamp Rabbits returned home for one game against the Cincinnati Cyclones, a team of which the Rabbits haven’t played against. Before they played against each other, the Rabbits had 30 points with a record of 15-3-0, tied with Kansas City and trailing by a point from the Idaho Steelheads. Previously, Greenville lost against the South Carolina Stingrays at home 8-5, with five unanswered goals in a span of thirty minutes of hockey. After rest and much-needed practice, the Swamp Rabbits returned home for some Wednesday hockey.
1st Period
The first Period started out rough for Cincinnati as they took a penalty just a minute in. However, their PK unit would out-work Greenville’s red-hot powerplay units, as the Rabbits managed to only shoot once on Boyko. After the Greenville powerplay, both teams would go back and forth offensively, shooting on the respective netminders. The flow would change after several minutes, as Cincinnati would once again head to the box and give Greenville another powerplay opportunity at 7:08. This powerplay would look different than the previous one for Greenville, however, as they shot two times on Boyko and continued to pressure, posting a total of five shots in over two minutes. But they couldn’t score, so Cincinnati did. At 9:38, Justin Vaive would open up scoring for the Cyclones from Zack Andrusiak. The goal was due to a turnover in the Rabbits’ neutral zone as Cincinnati created a two-on-one rush.
As a result, the momentum pressed on for the Cyclones, as they would add two shots on Ingham before letting Greenville get back into the offensive game. A great poke check in the neutral zone allowed for Greenville to gain the puck and rush down to Cincinnati’s zone, where they would pressure, forecheck, and keep the puck in. At 12:00 of the first Period, Colton Young, from the boards at the right-wing zone, would feed a pass to Russell for him to wrist-shot the puck at center and score. Russell’s near blue line shot bolted past Boyko and thus put the Rabbits’ on the board to make it a tie game. Although with the goal, the momentum shifted to the other team, Cincinnati, as they would spend the next three minutes pressuring the Swamp Rabbits’ d-men and netminder, posting five shots. However, all the shots would be denied by Ingham and Greenville’s defensive unit. But, at the 17:00 mark, a bad puck handle by a Swamp Rabbit in Greenville’s neutral zone would once again create another turnover and allow more pressure from the Cyclones’. Consequently, this would cost Greenville, as forward Lee Lapid would net a top-shelf goal to break the tie. And so, after twenty minutes, the score would be 2-1 Cyclones.
2nd Period
For the following Period, neither team scored after 20 minutes; however, plenty of chances were seen by them. The Cyclones shot ten times on Ingham, while the Rabbits posted seventeen on Boyko. It’s evident that Greenville wanted to render a lead, but Cincinnati’s defense was instrumental in denying every chance by the Swamp Rabbits. The respective goaltenders made responsive and great saves to keep the score at 2-1. Furthermore, there were only two minor penalties handed out, divided each to both teams. A lot of credit for Greenville maintaining that one goal deficit was from Jacob Ingham, but nonetheless, his fellow teammates also executed their defensive roles effectively and better than in the first Period.
3rd Period
The final twenty minutes went swell for GVL, as they would pressure Cincinnati for the first few minutes of play and eventually go on the powerplay at 4:41. Scoring in the air? You could say that… Shots left and right on goal during the Greenville powerplay would overwhelm the netminder in the red jersey as Tanner Eberle grabbed the puck and sent a rocket at an open-door net to tie things up. Thanks to an open path pass from Freeman, Eberle would be able to score as Boyko left the side of the net open at 6:30.
The tied score, however, would be shorter than the Rabbits’ anticipated, as Lincoln Griffin would score an assisted goal to make it 3-2 Cincinnati at 10:24. For the next two minutes, both teams would respectively rotate between the offensive zones to try and render a tie-breaking goal. Perhaps that would pay off for Greenville, as Greenway rushed Into the Cyclone’s zone to feed a pass for Ryan Francis to tip the puck off Boyko and tie things up – at 12:28.
The Francis goal would give Greenville a drive of momentum as they continued to press Boyko. The offensive pressure in Cincinnati’s zone would pay off, as Ryan Francis would net his second of the night at 16:45 from an assist by Joe Leahy. The 5 ’10 centre-man, who was recently sent down from the Ontario Reign of the AHL, has made a name for himself in the ECHL and Greenville—tallying up a current record of three goals and two assists in just three games played.
Because of Francis’ goal, the Rabbits were now up by a single goal with more than three minutes of hockey left. As a result of the single-goal lead, the Cincinnati bench decided to pull the tendy Boyko for the extra attacker. Greenville would try to dump the puck to the empty net multiple times, but fail. Fortunately, though, it wouldn’t matter, as the Cyclones couldn’t produce a goal with their extra man, and so the Rabbits’ would bounce back with a win.
Compared to the previous game against South Carolina, Greenville did a heck of a job in defending their zone and producing quality goals. However, there are still some things they have to improve on going forward for their next game at Savannah. Their main issue is mishandling the puck too many times, completely getting outworked by the other team; they simply cannot rely on their goaltender to bail them out if they do turn it over. Another element they must improve on is weak puck dumps and passes and not enough coverage in their zone while there’s poke-checking and forechecking occurring in their neutral zone.
