GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Swamp Rabbits opened April with a 3-2 shootout victory over the South Carolina Stingrays to extend their current winning streak to four games. Patrick Bajkov and Anthony Rinaldi both tallied in regulation, and Ryan Bednard stopped all three shootout shooters faced in addition to Matt Bradley’s strike in the skills competition.
Greenville earned their 20th win of the campaign to improve their overall record to 20-12-8-2. In the current season-series with their in-state rival, the Swamp Rabbits are 7-1-0-2 through 10 meetings.
Shortly after a 5-on-3 power play chance became a 5-on-4, Bajkov opened the scoring at 9:22 of the first period. On a shot from the bottom of the left circle, Bajkov scored his 10th goal of the season from a sharp angle past Rays netminder Hunter Shepard.
Next period, the Swamp Rabbits doubled their advantage to 2-0 at 8:05. Rinaldi deflected a Matt Bradley backhand try from the right circle. Matt Strome recorded the secondary assist on Rinaldi’s goal for his first point as a Greenville Swamp Rabbit in his second game.
South Carolina cut their deficit in half at 19:02 of the second period. Macoy Erkamps scored his first goal of the season after burying a center feed from Stingrays’ Cole Ully. Late in the third period, Ully tallied his team-best 14th goal of the season with Shepard pulled for the extra attacker at 18:29.
Overtime was required for Greenville’s league-leading 17th time in the 2020-21 season. Three-on-three did not solve a winner, and the game progressed to the Rabbits’ fourth shootout of the season. Bradley scored in the bottom of Round 1, and Bednard made saves on Cameron Askew, Ully and Brett Supinski to seal the 3-2 victory.
The Greenville Swamp Rabbits complete their three-game set with South Carolina Saturday night, April 3rd at 7:05 p.m., with their eyes set on a sweep and fifth straight win. Join us tomorrow for our “First Intermission Bunny Toss.” Fans are encouraged to bring as many stuffed rabbits (or other stuffed animals) as they please and toss them on the ice when prompted during first intermission. All stuffed animals will be donated to one of several local charitable organizations in the Greater Greenville area.
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