The Greenville Road Warriors used a four-goal first period to propel themselves past the visiting Florida Everblades at the BI-LO Center on Thursday night. The win was Greenville’s fourth straight at home and improved record to 5-3-1 on the season.
For the third straight game Greenville struck for the opening goal of the game as Julien Brouillette wristed a shot past Florida starter Jaroslav Janus at 7:34 of the first. It was Brouillette’s fifth goal of the season with assists going to Brendan Connolly and Connor Shields. The goal came with Marc-Olivier Vallerand in the penalty box and was Greenville’s first shorthanded goal of the season. As Vallerand exited the box he stole an errant Florida pass and raced in on a breakaway. He lifted a backhander past Janus just 26 seconds after Brouillette’s goal for a 2-0 Road Warriors lead. Greenville poured on the offense late in the first period with Shields netting his second of the season and Sean Berkstresser picking up his first. The goals came at 16:21 and 18:10 respectively. Paul McIlveen assisted on Berkstresser’s goal to pick up a point in his Road Warriors debut. Florida would not go quietly, though, and put its first goal on the board 24 seconds after Berkstresser’s goal when Mathieu Roy beat Nic Riopel with a slap shot from the blue line.
The second period began nearly exactly the same way the first ended. Thirty eight seconds into the frame Matthew Pistilli lifted a wrist shot towards the goal from just outside Greenville’s blue line. The shot sailed over Riopel’s shoulder and just under the crossbar to make it a 4-2 score. Both teams settled into the flow of the game and neither could score for nearly 11 minutes. Greenville, though, responded to Florida’s tally when Shane Harper picked up his second goal in as many nights. After taking a pass from Vallerand behind the net Harper stepped out to the right of Bobby Goepfert, who replaced Janus at the start of the second, and slipped a shot through to restore Greenville’s three-goal lead at 11:28.
The third period belonged to the Everblades as they nearly came back from a three-goal third period deficit for the second straight night. Riopel was knocked down amid a pile-up at the side of his cage in the early moments of the third. After recuperating the rookie goalie remained in the game, but was under siege by the Florida attack. Alex Imbeault netted his first of the game at 3:06 of the third and then set up Mitch Fadden at 6:17 as Florida pulled within a goal. The Everblades continued to press; eventually out-shooting the Road Warriors 13-3 in the period, but Greenville’s defense held the fort and pulled out the win.
Riopel made 31 saves in picking up his fifth win of the season while Greenville went 0-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
Please click here for tonight’s box score.
The Road Warriors return to home ice tomorrow night to take on the Florida Everblades at 7:05 p.m. ET. The Road Warriors will be honoring military heroes by offering free tickets to the game. Any active military members or military veterans can pick up one free ticket by presenting military identification at the BI-LO Center Box Office. The Road Warriors will also be offering their Friday Family Four-Pack which features four gold-level ticket, four hot dogs, four sodas, four pretzels, and four bags for chips for just $48! For more information on the promotions call the Road Warriors at 864-674-PUCK.
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