By Mike Bonts
Despite an early goal by the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, the team fell 5-1 to the Jacksonville Icemen on Friday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Greenville need just 1:51 into the game to take the lead, as Max Martin scored his seventh of the season, a power-play strike from the blue line, for the early 1-0 Rabbits lead. At 9:10, Jacksonville answered back with a power-play goal from Ara Nazarian.
In the second, Jacksonville took the lead with a Christopher Brown goal at 5:10, before Luke Lynch added a second Icemen goal in the period at 19:19.
In the third, the Icemen added another goal by Nazarian, an empty-netter, at 17:26, before Brendan Harris added a late power-play goal at 19:22 to solidly the 5-1 score line.
With the loss, the Swamp Rabbits fall to 26-14-7-0 while the Icemen improve to 31-15-2-0.
The Icemen play at Charlseton tonight.
the last time these two teams faced off nearly a month ago, Jacksonville has gone 8-3-1 and forced their way into the top spot in the South Division, three points ahead of the Stingrays.
Christopher Brown, captain, leads the Icemen with 17 goals and 44 points to go along with 27 assists this season. Ara Nazarian and Brendan Harris lead the way against South Carolina this season as the only two Icemen that are over a point per game and have played in each of the first five games of the season series.
Jacksonville is a team that thrives on their defensive style of play and takes advantage of their opposition's mistakes, allowing a league-low 27.40 shots per game.
(Mike Bonts covers hockey for SportsDay and the Florida Sports Wire.