(GREENVILLE, S.C.) – Carter Savoie’s late third-period strike went from providing breathing room to providing the win for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, who defeated the in-state rival South Carolina Stingrays on Friday night by a 3-2 score on “Project Search Night,” presented by Bon Secours. Additionally powered by 36 saves from Dryden McKay and two-point nights from Colton Young (1g-1ast) and Patrick Moynihan (2ast), the Swamp Rabbits earned their first win of the season, also serving as the first career win for Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations Kyle Mountain.
The Swamp Rabbits opened up the scoring entries for a second game in the season. Just 48 seconds into the game, Colton Young retrieved the puck on a hard forecheck in the corner and found Patrick Moynihan up the left-wing wall. Moynihan connected with Russell, who unloaded a blue-line shot that deflected off of a body and past Garin Bjorklund in the net for South Carolina, putting the Swamp Rabbits up 1-0 early (Moynihan and Young assisted). South Carolina answered minutes later with a blue-liner goal of their own from Andrew Perrott. With 9:00 gone by, Perrott collected the puck inside the attacking blue line and utilized a ton of real estate in his vicinity. He crept in and rifled a shot through traffic that beat Dryden McKay’s blocker to square the game at 1-1 (Austin Magera and Jamie Engelbert assisted).
Colton Young re-established the Swamp Rabbits’ lead early in the second with a highly skilled sequence, which kept the team ahead for the majority of regulation from there on out. At 5:05, Moynihan linked with Young on a “Hail Mary” pass up the ice, with Young behind the defense and in zone uncontested. Young out-deked Bjorklund and finished with a five-hole tuck to push Greenville to a 2-1 lead (Moynihan and Ben Freeman assisted). Moments later, McKay faced a two-on-none South Carolina break and masterfully saved it to maintain the Swamp Rabbits lead…