Greenville, SC – The Greenville Swamp Rabbits defeated the Atlanta Gladiators 5-1 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday night. Greenville scored three goals in 47 seconds late in the third period to outlast a Gladiators comeback attempt.

In the 7^th game of an 8-game road trip, the Gladiators met the Swamp Rabbits for the second time on the season and the first since opening night. Atlanta started netminder Ethan Haider, while Greenville went with Hampton Slukynsky for the second straight night.

The first period opened with the Gladiators killing off two penalties in the first five minutes of the game. The contest became very physical early on, highlighted by Atlanta’s Brendan Less fighting Greenville’s Hank Crone with 7:33 left in the period. The first period ended up being scoreless, with Greenville outshooting Atlanta 16-3.

Atlanta dictated the pace and play in the early stages of the second period but were unable to put in the opening score. The game became increasingly physical and gritty, producing the second fight of the night between Atlanta’s Ryan Nolan and Greenville’s Cade McNelly 6:08 into the period. The Swamp Rabbits broke the scoreless tie with a power play goal from Mike O’Leary 7:31 into the period. Cameron Supryka and Ryan O’Reilly assisted on the blast from the right wing from O’Leary that made it 1-0. Greenville doubled its lead with 3:04 remaining in the period after Atlanta successfully killed off a penalty. The Swamp Rabbits trapped the Gladiators in their own zone and worked the puck to the slot for Blake Bennett who scored to make it 2-0 from Neil Shea and Jake Murray. The period concluded with a third fight between Atlanta’s Ethan Strang and Greenville’s Jake Percival. Greenville outshot Atlanta 14-8 in the second period.

Similar to the way they played the second, the Gladiators had a strong opening to the third period. Colton Friesen scored off of a giveaway at the Greenville blue line with 11:51 remaining to make it a 2-1 game. Penalty trouble hurt the Gladiators, as with 9:05 remaining, Hudson Schandor scored from Cole Smedsrud and Ryan O’Reilly on the power play to make it 3-1. That would be the first of three goals in 47 seconds for the Swamp Rabbits, with Jack Brackett scoring with 5:38 to play and Josh Zary with 5:18 on the clock to make it a 5-1 final.

Greenville outshot Atlanta 43 to 23, with Ethan Haider stopping 38/43 shots faced and Hampton Slukynsky 22/23. The Gladiators went 0/3 on the power play and 6/8 on the penalty kill in the loss. 

The Gladiators wrap up the eight game road trip on Thursday, November 12^th with a shot at revenge when they once again meet the Swamp Rabbits at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:05 PM, watch all the action live on FloHockey at flohockey.tv or listen in on the Gladiators YouTube Channel.