NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – For much of the regular season, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits had their way with the South Carolina Stingrays. In fact, the Swamp Rabbits were 9-3-1-2 against their Palmetto State rivals in 15 meetings. With Greenville having the number two seed in the Eastern conference locked up long before South Carolina secured the fourth seed and coming off a hard fought full term series against Florida, it was only natural that the Swamp Rabbits would be favored in Game 1 of the best-of-five conference final series at the Carolina Ice Palace.
This, however, has not been a normal season and the Stingrays are certainly proving that they may not be a normal fourth seed.
Spurred on by two goals each by Max Novak and captain Andrew Cherniwchan, South Carolina came out hard and fast and were dominant in a 5-1 win over Greenville on Wednesday night. Goalie Hunter Shepard picked up his third straight win by stopping 26 of 27 shots before the teams head to Greenville for games 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday nights.
Coming off of a grueling three games in three days and just one day off before the next series began, nobody was quite sure how much the host Stingrays would have in their tanks. Meanwhile, Greenville was well rested, having dispatched of the Indy Fuel last Saturday, giving them three full days and a short travel distance to work with.
South Carolina came out firing at will on Swamp Rabbits netminder Ryan Bednard in the first period, outshooting Greenville 6-2 in the initial nine minutes of play. It wasn’t until the 11:58 mark of the opening frame that the Stingrays got on the board. Successive penalties on Greenville’s Frank Hora and Garrett Thompson put the Swamp Rabbits at a two-man disadvantage and the home team capitalized. Cole Ully put a shot on net from the point that Bednard stopped. The rebound kicked out to Max Novak who lifted the puck over the prone netminder for his first goal of the playoffs.
Novak’s tally and the intense pressure the Stingrays gained from the power play led to a second goal two minutes and 16 seconds later. This time it was Dylan Steman who did the honors. He and Mark Cooper set off on a two-on-one rush up the ice. Steman held the puck and pulled the trigger with a shot into the upper part of the cage for his second postseason score and his second in two games.
There was no other scoring in the first but the shots on net were a big indicator of which team was in charge. South Carolina finished the stanza with 15 shots registered while Greenville only mustered four on Shepard.
The middle frame was much more even in shots with the Swamp Rabbits logging 12 shots to the Stingrays 13 but the scoreboard only got more lopsided. A penalty on Greenville’s Joey Haddad early on gave South Carolina another chance to take advantage. Cherniwchan, who netted a pair in the series-tying win over the Everblades on Sunday, took a feed from Matthew Weis and pinballed a shot off an Greenville player and past Bednard for his third of the playoffs and a 3-0 lead.
The South Carolina captain wasn’t through inking his name on the scoresheet. At the 13:11 mark, Cherniwchan got himself in the right spot to redirect a shot by Tyler Nanne past Bednard for his second of the night and fourth of the postseason. It also ended the night for Bednard, who was replaced by John Lethemon after allowing four goals on 23 shots in 33:11 of playing time.
Knowing they had to work quickly, Greenville got on the board for the first time in the contest at the 6:26 mark of the third period. Graham Knott redirected a shot by Ben Finkelstein past Shepard to spoil the shutout bid. It proved to be the only blemish on Shepard’s numbers for the night.
Greenville pulled Lethemon with more than five minutes remaining in regulation trying to find a spark. It proved to be a lesson in futility as the Swamp Rabbits rang up a mere three shots on the South Carolina net in the final 5:48 of play. Novak finished off the scoring with 1:44 to go with an unassisted empty net goal for his second of the night to seal the win.
The Stingrays finished the night with a 36-27 shots advantage. They also went 2-for-5 on the power play while Greenville was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
Game 2 is set for Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville with Game 3 scheduled for Saturday night back at the Bon Secours also at 7:05 p.m.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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