Raucous Athens Crowd Fuels Rock Lobster Victory

ATHENS, GA - The Athens Rock Lobsters defeated the Baton Rouge Zydeco 4-1 to a fiery crowd of 5,317 Friday night in Akins Ford Arena.

Having taken an early penalty, the Zydeco opened up the scoring on a shorthanded 2-on-1 that was finished off by Narek Aleksanyan at the 5:30 mark.

Kayson Gallant had an excellent night of stickhandling and used that to his advantage later on in the first, toe dragging a puck around a defenseman and flipping one over Breandan Colgan. Less than a minute later, Orca Wiesblatt redirected a Carter Shinkaruk shot to take the first Athens lead of the night late on in the first.

Having assisted the first two goals, Shinkaruk tallied one of his own with a laser into the roof of the net in the closing minute of the second period.

The dagger was dealt to Baton Rouge, courtesy of Michael Greco, whose long-range effort with an empty net deflected off the well-meaning glove of Zydeco defenseman Nick Ketola and into the net.

The Rock Lobsters (20-4-2, 53 pts) return to Akins Ford Arena Saturday night to take on the Baton Rouge Zydeco. It will be Stick It To Cancer Night in Akins Ford Arena; the team will wear special jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game, with proceeds going to cancer research. Fans can also participate in awareness and fundraising activities.