Greenville’s comeback attempt falls short against Jacksonville

GREENVILLE, SC – Three consecutive goals between the first and the second helped to lift the Jacksonville Icemen over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in a 3-2 contest on Friday night, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. The first period got off to a quick start as Nikita Pavlychev scored the first goal of the game at 4:38, assisted by Liam Pecararo and Max Zimmer. Just 1:07 later, Pavel Vorobei scored for Jacksonville, tying the score at 1-1 at the 5:45 mark. Abbott Girduckis created a lead for Jacksonville, scoring at 17:32 to make the score 2-1, a score-line that would hold into the intermission.

In the second period, Derek Lodermeier scored at 2:22 to extend the Jacksonville lead to 3-1. Ayden MacDonald buried a goal off of a backside feed from Austin Eastman, bringing the Rabbits within one goal at 11:56, a score-line that would hold to the final horn.

Pecararo’s first period assist extends his point streak to 20 games, the longest in the ECHL since the 2008-09 season and the fourth longest in ECHL history. The streak that began on November 19th has included 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists).

With the loss, the Swamp Rabbits fell to 15-17-4-3 while the Icemen improved to 25-14-2-1 on the season.

The Swamp Rabbits travel to Jacksonville overnight to take on the Icemen on Saturday night at 7 p.m. inside the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.