GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Swamp Rabbits (33-21-4-1), proud ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers and the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, rode the backs of Michael Joly, Ahti Oksanen, and Allan McPherson to a 7-3 win against the Wichita Thunder (17-35-3-1) Tuesday night. The Swamp Rabbits statement win began a stretch of five games in six days. Joly, Oksanen, and McPherson each earned career highs, each earning four points in the victory.
Greenville didn’t take long to break the game open. A little over a minute into the contest Oksanen found Joly down the ice for a breakaway. Slowly moving in on the net, the Gatineau, QC native used his quick hands to tuck it around the Thunder goaltender Drew Owsley.
Defenseman Macoy Erkamps equalized the game seven minutes into the game on a shot from the blue line. The Swamp Rabbits catapulted forward to a lead they would not relinquish. Joly’s second of the game came seven minutes later on a quick pass from McPherson from the right circle. Joly let the quick shot fly into the net, furthering his team lead in goals.
Joe Houk wrapped up the first period of play with a goal at 15:56. Brandon Alderson and Angelo Miceli each added their first assists of the night, but Houk took the puck to the crease himself. Sliding to the low slot, the third-year defenseman was untouched before roofing a backhanded shot into the net. The defenseman would end the night with two goals including a third period power play tally. Houk’s 14 goals lead all Swamp Rabbits defensemen and are tied for second most in the ECHL.
The Thunder countered back at the start of the second period bringing the score to 3-2. Greenville then stepped on the gas pedal. On the power play, Oksanen caught a bouncing puck at the high slot before rifling it off the left post and into the net. The Finnish winger earned a goal and added three assists in the game for his second four point effort in the last three contests.
Joly came back with two more goals before the period ended. At 19:15 the Swamp Rabbits rookie was left alone on the goal line for another dazzling deke at the top of the crease. Reaching around the netminder, Joly netted the hat-trick goal and gave Greenville a 5-2 advantage. Less than 40 seconds later he completed the miraculous night.
McPherson reached out to poke a puck to Joly in front of the net and the winger kept digging for his fourth goal of the night. He ties a franchise record set in 2013 by Brendan Connolly with four goals in one game and is one of only six players in the ECHL to reach the four goal mark in one night. The rookie leads the Swamp Rabbits with 23 goals and is eight goals from tying the franchise single season scoring record of 31 goals set by Andrew Rowe and Brandon Wong.
In the physical contest, the teams saw three fights and over 60 minutes in penalty time handed out. Greenville battled through the physical play and topped Wichita with 37 shots on net. Mackenzie Skapski won his fourth straight decision, making 31 saves to earn his 17th game of the year. Owsley suffers the loss for Wichita who now fall to 2-16-2-0 in the last 20 contests.
The Swamp Rabbits go back to work against Wichita tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. The game ends a two-game series between the clubs in the fastest turnaround of the season for Greenville this year. The Swamp Rabbits are 1-1-0-0 in 10:30 a.m. games this year, splitting morning contests with the Orlando Solar Bears in November.
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