GREENVILLE, SC – All season long, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits have been a thorn in the sides of the Orlando Solar Bears. In seven previous meetings, the Swamp Rabbits – residents of the basement of the ECHL’s South Division – had taken three of those contests. Friday night, Greenville had an opportunity to temporarily keep the Solar Bears from clinching a spot in the 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs.
And they took it.
Led by two goals from Zach Franko and 32 saves from goalie Kyle Hayton, the host Swamp Rabbits (23-39-3-3, 52 points) doubled down on Orlando, defeating the visiting Solar Bears (36-25-4-1) by a final of 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 7,377 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Otto Somppi led Orlando with a goal and an assist as the Solar Bears wiped out a two goal deficit but gave up two scores in the final period to drop their second straight on the team’s current road trip.
The loss left the Solar Bears sitting in second place in the division, three points ahead of third place Jacksonville with two games in hand and a pair of head-to-head meetings next week. Orlando can lock up its third straight trip to the post-season with a win Saturday night in North Charleston over the South Carolina Stingrays, who fell into fifth place two points behind Atlanta with the Gladiators having one game in hand.
The Swamp Rabbits, playing with nothing to lose and the satisfaction of delaying a celebration by a rival, immediately tried to run the Solar Bears out of the building. Much like Wednesday night against Atlanta, Orlando, with Connor Ingram in net, had to withstand an early barrage that saw the home team run up a 9-1 shots advantage throught the first ten minutes of the first period.
Greenville opened the scoring at the 11:34 mark of the opening frame with a goal that part skill and part luck. The key part of the play was when Tyler Bird made a hard drive to the net before pushing a shot toward Ingram. The puck slid underneath the Orlando netminder, banging off his left leg and skidding in the direction of the goal line. Franko, who was standing at the edge of the crease to Ingram’s right, gave the disc a final push across the line for his third goal of the season.
The Solar Bears began to wake up after the score, using a power play to rack up three quick shots but Hayton was equal to the task. An overlapping Swamp Rabbits penalty gave the Solar Bears 35 seconds of five-on-three advantage time and an extended power play but the visitors failed to take advantage, adding no additional shots.
Starting the second stanza with the lead, the Swamp Rabbits wasted little time in extending their lead. Just 46 seconds in, Jake Bolton took a pass at the blueline from Clint Lewis and fired a slap shot at the Orlando net. Fighting some traffic in front of him, Ingram seemed to lose the puck, watching helplessly as it sailed between his legs for Bolton’s 12th of the year.
Needing to light a fire under his squad, Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky pulled Ingram in favor of Clint Windsor. Two minutes later, Orlando captain Mike Monfredo squared off with Greenville’s Austen Brassard but Monfredo had committed a boarding penalty, giving the Swamp Rabbits a chance to push the lead even further.
Despite being down a man, the Solar Bears took to the offensive and cut into the Swamp Rabbits lead with a short-handed tally. It came when defenseman Rob Mann carried the puck down the far side of the ice in the Greenville end. He dropped a pass below the goal line to Troy Bourke who started to make a move in the direction of the backside of the net. Instead of continuing through,he slipped a pass to Somppi who had snuck to the right post and was uncovered. Somppi did the rest, burying the puck in the open side for his 10th goal of the season.
Orlando continued to press hard, completely turning around the momentum of the contest in their favor. Windsor added incentive to the effort, robbing Swamp Rabbits sniper Michael Pelech with a brilliant glove save to keep it a one goal game.
The Solar Bears advances eventually wore down Greenville’s defense, leading to the tying score. It came at the 18:17 mark when Cody Donaghey got loose in the middle of the slot and rifled a shot that Hayton stopped. The rebound bounced out where Chris LeBlanc grabbed it and whipped a pass to Somppi who was alone in the right faceoff circle. Somppi’s shot clanged off the inside of the left post and dropped into the crease where LeBlanc beat everyone to the puck and poked it home for his eighth of the season and a 2-2 tie at the second intermission.
As it was in the middle frame, the first minute of the third period became the Solar Bears downfall. Swamp Rabbits’ forward Kamerin Nault carried the puck down the right wing into the faceoff circle before curling toward the half boards. As he turned, Nault saw Austen Brassard sneaking in behind an Orlando defender on the back side of the net. With an open passing lane before him, Nault fired the disc to Brassard who directed it past Windsor for his 21st of the year and a 3-2 Greenville lead.
The Solar Bears were handed a power play less than a minute later but came up empty. That was followed by Hayton turning away attempts by Dylan Fitze and Alexander Kuqali in the span of twelve seconds to maintain the Swamp Rabbits’ slim margin. Greenville’s netminder then turned in arguably his best save of the night, flashing his glove hand to deny the Solar Bears Mathieu Foget of a sure game-tying score.
Greenville faced one final penalty killing situation with 5:40 left in regulation but the Swamp Rabbits defenders held the Solar Bears to one shot on the power play. Berehowsky pulled Windsor (10 saves in 37:47 of playing time) with about two minutes to go and despite some Orlando pressure, the Swamp Rabbits put the game away when Franko forced a turnover in the neutral zone and sailed the puck into the empty net with 56.6 seconds to go for his second of the night and fourth of the season.
Notes: Final shots were 34-26 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-5 on the power play in the game while the Swamp Rabbits finished the contest 0-for-3… The victory was the first in a Greenville uniform for Hayton since being claimed off waivers from Allen on February 26th… Orlando’s Somppi two points extended his hot March to 6 goals and 7 assists. His 13 points during the month lead all Solar Bears rookies in scoring… The two teams will finish their season series Sunday afternoon in Greenville.
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