Greenville, S.C. – Dryden McKay earned his fourth shutout of the season and the Bloomington Bison defeated the Greenville Swamp Rabbits 4-0 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena Sunday afternoon to jump into third place in the Central Divison.
Bloomington charged into the game with a net-front drive by Shane Ott less than a minute in but the puck jumped over the net. Moments later, the Swamp Rabbits countered and McKay denied pressure. The home squad then rang a shot off the crossbar eight minutes in before the Bison took control of the game. Mark Kaleinikovas gave Bloomington a 1-0 lead from Nikita Sedov and Chongmin Lee at 12:18. Three minutes later, Ott doubled the lead from Kaleinikovas and Lee. Before the end of the stanza, the Bison were assessed an interference penalty and for the second-straight time going back to Saturday’s game, Bloomington completed the kill without allowing a shot to eventually take its 2-0 lead into intermission.
Lou-Felix Denis and Sedov were stopped on quality chances early in the second period, but Denis would make good on another opportunity to make it 3-0 at 6:16. Just over a minute later, Deni Goure continued the onslaught and potted a goal from Ilya Tsulygin to make it 4-0 on just the 8th Bison shot of the game. Greenville made a goaltending change, and the Bison earned a powerplay shortly after but could not score. Bloomington took its 4-0 lead into the third off the heels of a 10-6 shot advantage in the second.
The Bison began the final frame with extended zone time and the line of Kaleinikovas, Ott and Lee nearly added another goal. After a zone keep in by Brenden Datema allowed pressure to mount further, play headed down ice and McKay stopped a slapshot blast. With five minutes left, Bloomington’s backstop pounced on a loose puck off a scramble to settle play down. Another crease crash by Greenville resulted in offsetting roughing calls and another athletic save by McKay. Parker Lindauer and Goure were stopped from capitalizing on a cross-ice feed while on the 4-on-4 sequence, and the Swamp Rabbits kept play in offensive ice in the remaining minutes but could not best McKay, who finished the game with 16 saves. His fourth of the season propelled him past Yaniv Perets for the most shutouts by a Bison in team history and secured two standings points for Bloomington. The Bison jumped two teams with the win and are now in third place in the division with three games remaining.
