RABBITS RECAP: November 18th

The Swamp Rabbits took two out of three games against teams pacing either the South Division or the ECHL itself. Read more in this week's "Rabbits Recap"!

REGULAR SEASON GAME 8 (Wednesday, November 13th vs Savannah)
     "SCHOOL DAY GAME", presented by AFL Global

Greenville Swamp Rabbits 4, Savannah Ghost Pirates 3

SC: Paliani-G, Ast; Hughes/Vitelli-G Each

GVL: Savoie-GWPPG; Brodzinski/Singleton-G, Ast Each

GAME RECAP

REGULAR SEASON GAME 9 (Saturday, November 16th vs Florida)
     FAITH AND FAMILY DAY, presented by Abide Roofing and Restoration

Florida Everblades 8, Greenville Swamp Rabbits 0

FLA: 3 Shorthanded Goals; Gicewicz-Hat Trick, Ast; Chau-2g, Ast

GVL: Second Shutout Loss of Season

GAME RECAP

REGULAR SEASON GAME 10 (Sunday, November 17th vs Florida)

Greenville Swamp Rabbits 3, Florida Everblades 2

FLA: Brar-1st Pro Goal; Theisen-G

GVL: McKay-47sv/49sh (Career-High); Singleton-2ast; Savoie-GWG (ECHL Leading 3rd)

GAME RECAP

UPCOMING GAMES

• Friday, November 22nd vs South Carolina Stingrays
• Saturday, November 23rd @ Savannah Ghost Pirates
• Sunday, November 24th vs Jacksonville Icemen
  • FIRST RESPONDERS DAY, presented by Carolina Handling

SWAMP RABBITS LEADERS

NOTES AND NUMBERS

MCKAY HAS A DAY: One of the main reasons the Swamp Rabbits split with the Everblades on Sunday was the near-perfect play of DRYDEN MCKAY in net. McKay faced a season-high 49 shots and turned aside all but two of them, setting a single-game career-high with 47 saves, including 20 in the final 20 minutes. Hi previous career-best was 41 saves on 43 shots in a 3-2 win at Florida on March 25, 2023. He's been the workhorse for the Swamp Rabbits this season: McKay has a 3-3-1-0 record, appearing in all but two games this campaign.

HE SCORES. WE WIN. SAVY?: The simplest stat the Swamp Rabbits have right now is if CARTER SAVOIE scores, the team wins. While that may seem like an over exaggeration, it isn't: the Swamp Rabbits are 5-0-0-0 in games where Savoie is on the stat sheet in the goal column. Additionally, he has a share of the ECHL lead with three game-winning tallies, earning two this last week.

LEADING THE PACK: When leading through two periods of play, the Swamp Rabbits have seen nothing but success. The team is 5-0-0-0 when carrying a lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation, tied multiple ways for the third-most wins in such a scenario across the league. In addition, the team is 5-1-1-0 when scoring first, and has provided the first goal of the game in all but one of seven home games this season.

THEY SAID IT

"The only questions that matter are 'what do we do tomorrow?' and 'how do we respond tomorrow?'...it's a learning lesson for us and we need to use it, so how we react tomorrow matters.

"[I saw] resilience. The ability to take a really tough loss and make something meaningful out of it and just respond. We have leadership in that room, guys that are hungry, and guys that want to compete and win. We showed that today. We don't want what occurred [Saturday] to be frequent, but great to see our team turn the page...we said pregame that we need everybody, and we got everybody. It was great to see our guys respond that way."

-Kyle Mountain, Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations, postgame Saturday to postgame Sunday following a tough defeat and resilient win

"To me, it started the shift before [the tie-breaking goal]. It started with a great puck race from Stuart Rolofs. he wins the race to the corner and we end up hemming them in for a good 40, 45 seconds. Those races and those moments in a game really matter. It showed the group that if you get into a moment of adversity or a team pushes back, which we know that happens, we have to be the ones to throw the next punch. I thought our response was great, and its always good to get a goal off of it, but the shift leading up was what really stood out to me: being assertive, not playing on our heels, not being timid, but pushing back and getting a reward for it."

-Coach Mountain on what went into Tate Singleton's tie-breaking goal in the third period of Wednesday's win against Savannah

"He has a really high-end skillset, so it's nice to see him get rewarded for making some plays. He can score some pretty goals, so it's nice he has that finish ability, and honestly he's just able to contribute for us. His play off the puck has been really good too: he's moving his feet more, contributing defensively, tracking, forechecking, and he's playing with some physicality now, which only leads to more offense, in my mind. He's really starting to put it together and feeling really good about his game, so it's great for us and we want to keep that rolling"

-Coach Mountain regarding Bryce Brodzinski and his development through the early stage of his rookie season

"I think just playing our game. We know what works. Obviously [Saturday] wasn't pretty and no one was happy about it, but we played with some swagger and we know what we do well as a team. We knew from preparing we were going to have time to shoot up top. We have a really skilled d-corps and guys that can move really well, so it just reinforced, once again, that when we play our game and play to our strengths, great things will happen."

-#21 Bobby Russell on why the defense was so active offensively in the bounceback win against Florida 

"Guys are a little bit more comfortable, especially our forward group where it was a few new faces early on. It takes time to gel and takes time to figure out 'what is my role, where do I fit, and how do I contribute'. We've worked with guys over weeks and weeks to communicate those things and those expectations, but for them to see it is how it really sinks in. When guys are able to go make plays and make meaningful contributions on or off the scoresheet, it just reinforces in their mind 'hey, this is what I can do for this team, and this is how I can contribute'. Guys are starting to learn these expectations and roles they have for themselves and how they fit in our group."

-Coach Mountain regarding confidence and how its fostered and built from the coaching perspective