Carter Savoie, in just his third game back off of IR, got things started for the Swamp Rabbits, who left the opening frame with the lead. With 8:12 left in the first, Savoie and Brodzinski broke up the ice in transition from inside their own blue line. Brodzinski fired a cross-ice pass to Savoie, who slotted the puck past Jacksonville’s Matt Vernon in net to give the Swamp Rabbits a 1-0 lead. Dryden McKay staved off a barrage of shots from the Icemen, turning aside 17 attempts on his net.
Jacksonville tilted the game in their favor in the middle frame, carrying a lead into the final 20 minutes as a result. Just 3:02 in, Justin McRae transitioned up the ice on the right side and rifled a shot just barely under the bar and over McKay’s shoulder, squaring the game at 1-1 (Ivan Chukarov assisted). Cooper Jones pushed the Icemen ahead when Chukarov’s “Hail Mary” missed his target, but Brody Crane beat out an icing call and found him in front for a point-blank strike to give Jacksonville a 2-1 lead.
Miles Gendron found an answer in the final frame on his first of the season, but the Icemen returned fire and ultimately left with the victory. Gendron’s strike came 4:09 into the third when, during a delayed penalty signal, he lapped around the Icemen zone, spun to his forehand, and sniped over Vernon’s shoulder to square the game at 2-2 (Brent Pedersen and Colton Young assisted). The even score didn’t last long, with Davis Koch finding a breakthrough on a net-front redirect with 7:22 played in the frame to give Jacksonville a lead they wouldn’t relinquish (Chukarov and Logan Cockerill assisted). Cockerill added insurance with 5:36 left in the game when he blazed by the Swamp Rabbits defense and finished with a backhand strike past McKay, and was followed by an empty-netter from Liam Coughlin to pick up an eventual 5-2 win for the Icemen.
Dryden McKay, playing a third straight game in a second straight start, suffered the defeat while stopping 36 of 40 shots (8-10-2-0).
The Swamp Rabbits close out 2024 with a one-off showdown against the Norfolk Admirals on New Year’s Eve, presented by Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet, in the family friendliest New Year’s Eve party in the Upstate. The game starts earlier with a special 6:05 p.m. EST puck drop, and features an indoor, on-ice fireworks display after the game, in addition to a youth jersey giveaway to the first 1,000 children under 14, fashioned after the “Hopville” jerseys the Swamp Rabbits will wear that night (they will be auctioned off after the game).
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