RABBITS RECAP: October 28th

The second week of the season featured the first meetings against our in-state rivals, and our team's first test away from home. Read about how it all went down in this week's "Rabbits Recap"!

REGULAR SEASON GAME 2 (Friday, October 25, 2024 vs South Carolina)

Greenville Swamp Rabbits 3, South Carolina Stingrays 2

SC: Miller/Perrott-G Each; Magera-2ast

GVL: Young-G, Ast; Moynihan-2ast; McKay-36sv/38sh (W)

GAME RECAP

REGULAR SEASON GAME 3 (Saturday, October 26, 2024 @ South Carolina)

South Carolina Stingrays 5, Greenville Swamp Rabbits 0

GVL: 1st Shutout Loss of Season

SC: Eisele-24sv Shutout (W, Pro Debut); Miller-2g; Magera-G, Ast

GAME RECAP

UPCOMING GAMES

• Friday, November 1st vs Savannah Ghost Pirates

SWAMP RABBITS LEADERS

NOTES AND NUMBERS

CLIMBING THE (KYLE) MOUNTAIN STARTS WITH ONE STEP: For the first time this season, the Swamp Rabbits claimed the win, doing so against their heated in-state rivals in the South Carolina Stingrays. The win marks the first in the professional head coaching career of KYLE MOUNTAIN, who was elevated to the role entering the 2024-25 campaign. This is the seventh straight season the Swamp Rabbits have earned their first win of the campaign within the first three games of a new year. You’d have to go back to the start of the 2017-18 ECHL Season to find the last time they didn’t, which was when the team started 0-2-1-0 and didn't get their first win until October 24th at Adirondack.

BICENTENNIAL MAN: When he took to the ice Saturday against South Carolina, Swamp Rabbits Captain BEN FREEMAN did so for a 200th time in a Swamp Rabbits sweater. The seventh Captain in the history of the Road Warriors/Swamp Rabbits joined the tean in the 2021-22 season after leading the Pensacola Ice Flyers to the 2021 SPHL Championship, in addition to starting his ECHL career with the Wheeling Nailers, playing seven games in West Virginia. Freeman enters this weekend's showdown against the Savannah Ghost Pirates one point shy of 100 in Greenville, with 37 goals and 62 assists to his name in the previous 200 contests.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION: Entering the weekend against Savannah, the Swamp Rabbits are tied for the second fewest appearances on the penalty kill through three games, only losing man power six times over the last two weeks. The team was one of the last six without a power play goal conceded in the league until Micah Miller ended that streak in the third period on Saturday. The team is 5/6 through three games (83.3%).

GHOST BUSTERS: Friday's showdown against the Savannah Ghost Pirates is the team's first of eight meetings in the season, and first of five in the friendly confines of Bon Secours Wellness Arena. The Swamp Rabbits throttled their South Division rivals with a 10-3-0-0 record in a baker's dozen of meetings last season, including a 6-1-0-0 mark at home, and winning the 2024 South Division title at their expense on the final day of the regular season.

THEY SAID IT

"I was just happy to get it done...happy for the guys. They put the time in, really competed, and worked hard, so I just wanted to see them get rewarded. It was a fun one, a really good game, really competitive, as we expected.

"I just feel really lucky, really fortunate. First of all, I have an unbelievable group to work with every day. These guys are awesome, makes it fun to come to the office every day. I have a great staff and a great organization, so as far as that factor I feel very lucky. Beyond that, I think about the support I've gotten throughout my life both as a player and as a coach. You don't get anywhere without that support structure in your life, so I have great people around me both at the rink and outside the rink, so I'm a lucky guy for that reason."

-Kyle Mountain, Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations on earning both the team's first win of the season and his first win as a head coach in the professional ranks

"I've got to give credit to the D. I was seeing pucks a lot. We did a really good job playing in front of the net clearing rebounds, boxing out, and it made my job easy. If I can see [shots], I'm really confident in my abilities."

-Goaltender #29 Dryden McKay on the role defense played in front of him securing a 3-2 win over the Stingrays on October 25th

"[The goaltender] changes the whole dynamic of the game. It instills so much confidence in the group when a goaltender like that is on. You can feel it. You want to do everything you can to help him, but you just know he had it locked in."

-Coach Mountain on Dryden McKay's 36-save performance in the team's first win on October 25th

"We have a ton of talent and size. [We're] still getting to know the chemistry: who plays well with who, different game styles, and how it all meshes together. As a coach, you want to get the most out of the players, and I think we're really finding that stride now as we saw in that second game. I think all lines were going at a higher rate and we found the back of the net, not just on the power play. As we go every day here, it's encouraging to see the adjustments we made [in addition to] the player's own adjustments to have such a great leap from the first game to the second, so we look to continue that on every single game."

-Adam Dauda, Assistant Coach regarding the forward group of the Swamp Rabbits and his role managing them

"He's everything. We talk about him as a hockey player a lot and what he brings on the ice, but off the ice he's even better. He's an unbelievable person and a great leader. He's super involved in our organization, in the community, and loves Greenville, so you can't ask for much more out of your Captain. Pretty big milestone for him. You want good things for a guy like that. He's an easy guy to root for. We're happy we get him back and he's in that leadership role that he has more than deserved."

-Coach Mountain on Ben Freeman and his 200th game with the team on October 26th at South Carolina

"We came in needing to play a good road game and just didn't. We didn't play the right way. Ultimately, it has to be simple, hard nosed, and tough to play against, and it wasn't...it took us too long to get to our game, similarly against Orlando last week...it's back to the drawing board. We need to find a way to be more consistent night to night.

"We've got all the skill needed to win hockey games, but if you don't have that foundational identity, you can't get to your skill. The messaging postgame and into the week is that we've got to have a particular way of playing the game, and we have to do that on a nightly basis. When you play with that identity, your skill can take over. It's a good lesson for us: you can't waver and you have to find a way to play with that identity on a nightly basis. If we can do that, we'll be fine."

-Coach Mountain following Saturday's defeat and where to go from here awaiting the Savannah Ghost Pirates on Friday