(ORLANDO, Fla.) – Dante Sheriff struck twice in the first period, Hudson Schandor notched three assists, and Mattias Sholl collected an assist and 24 saves as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits handled the Orlando Solar Bears with a 5-1 win on Monday night. The win gives the Swamp Rabbits a sweep of their brief two-game road trip, coupled with their overtime win at Jacksonville on Saturday.

Dante Sheriff got the Swamp Rabbits to an early 2-0 start after one period. His first came in transition, streaking down from the left inside the Orlando zone with numbers. At 11:54, Sheriff tried to hit Hudson Schandor on the run towards the net, but the puck banked off a defender and past Solar Bears goalie Jon Gillies, giving the Swamp Rabbits a 1-0 lead (Schandor and Tim Lovell assisted). Towards the end of the period, Schandor finished a crisp passing sequence to double the lead. With 2:20 left in the period, Schandor forced a turnover inside the blue line and found Keaton Mastrondonato from the slot on the left, with him firing it across the seam to Sheriff for a backdoor tap-in, pushing the Swamp Rabbits to a 2-0 lead.

The Swamp Rabbits found another in the second period, coming via special teams. On the third Swamp Rabbits penalty kill of the game, Schandor carried the puck through the neutral zone and had numbers coming in, specifically Parker Berge crashing the net and Cam Hausinger trailing back. Schandor hit Hausinger, who returned fire to Schandor for a shot that was stopped by Gillies, but Berge potted the rebound to triple the lead to 3-0 with a shorthanded tally with 92 seconds left in the period.

Ryan O’Hara piled on to start the third period, before Orlando found a response. At 3:02, with four-on-four hockey concluding, Patrick Polino circled the attacking zone and rifled a pass off of O’Hara in the slot, with the latter redirecting it past Gillies to expand the Swamp Rabbits lead to 4-0 (Polino and Tristan De Jong assisted). However, De Jong and John Parker-Jones were called for coincidental minors that put the Swamp Rabbits down two men for a full two minutes, and Orlando utilized it to get on the board. With 10:31 left in the game, Reece Newkirk circled to the top of the Swamp Rabbits zone, and from the slot rifled a shot past a screened Mattias Sholl, ending his shutout at 4-1 (Aaron Luchuk and Anthony Bardaro assisted). Orlando, desperate to come back, pulled Gillies from their net for an extra skater, but Jake Murray, fielding a pass from Mattias Sholl, netted his first goal as a Swamp Rabbit into the empty net with 1:48 left, bringing the game to its final of 5-1.

Mattias Sholl turned aside all but one of 25 shots on his net and picked up an assist in the win (5-6-2-0).

The Swamp Rabbits now head back home for a one-off against the in-state rival South Carolina Stingrays on Saturday, January 10^th. Puck drop for “Conservation Night”, presented by TrueTimber, is slated for 7:05 p.m. EST. 

###

About the Greenville Swamp Rabbits …
Acquired by Spire Sports + Entertainment (SS+E) in 2020, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team have been providing family friendly, live entertainment at Bon Secours Wellness Arena since 2010. Formerly the Greenville Road Warriors, the Swamp Rabbits are the highest-level professional minor league franchise in South Carolina. The Swamp Rabbits are the proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL's LA Kings and the AHL's Ontario Reign. Greenville is a member of the ECHL, Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League.