(READING, Pa.) – Tim Lovell gave the Greenville Swamp Rabbits life in the third period, but it was negated 25 seconds later by Jeremy Michel’s second of the game, and coupled by his performance and Yaniv Peret’s 36 saves, led the Reading Royals to a 4-1 win on Friday night. The game started a franchise record 11-game road trip for the Swamp Rabbits.

Both teams skated to a scoreless deadlock after one period, with Reading finally breaking through in the second. Ben Meehan started the scoring entries at 6:34 of the second, parking himself in the net front and getting a piece of a Miles Gendron shot through traffic that squeaked past Swamp Rabbits net-minder Isaiah Saville, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead (Gendron and Massimo Rizzo assisted). Towards the end of the period, the Swamp Rabbits failed the clear their zone at the blue line, with Gendron keeping the zone. Gendron found Kyle Haskins down low, who deferred to Michel for a tap in to double the Royals lead to 2-0 with 1:55 left in the period.

Tim Lovell finally gave the Swamp Rabbits some life at the midway point of the final period, but it was immediately answered to take the momentum out of the comeback. At 8:32, Keaton Mastrodonato found Lovell and Ryan O’Hara, with the latter two going on a give-and-go while slashing past the defense. O’Hara waited long enough to bait Yaniv Perets in net for the Royals and dish to Lovell, who slammed the puck into the wide open net to cut the deficit to 2-1. However, 25 seconds later, the puck was misplayed behind the Swamp Rabbits net to Austin Saint, who found Michel open in the slot for a quick response to re-establish the Royals multi-goal lead to 3-1 with 11:03 to play. Saville was pulled late for the extra-attacker to try and mount a two-goal comeback, but the puck was turned over to Liam Devlin as the team tried to go up the ice. Devlin hit the empty net with 1:56 to play, giving the Royals a 4-1 win.

Isaiah Saville suffered the loss, stopping 27 of 30 shots in the effort (7-7-0-1).

The Swamp Rabbit continue their franchise record 11-game road trip with a rematch against the Reading Royals, the second in their pair of games to close out February. Puck drop the weekend finale is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST at Santander Arena tomorrow night, February 28^th.

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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.