WHEELING, WV –Tonight the Greenville Road Warriors conclude their four-game northern road trip with a visit to the Wheeling Nailers. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at WesBanco Arena.
RECAPPING THE ACTION:
11/26/10 – GRW 6 – KAL 2
The Road Warriors showed their ability to come from behind on the road for the second straight night and picked up their third win of the northern road trip. Greenville struck first with Jimmy Kilpatrick netting his second goal of the season 2:57 into the game. The Wings, however, picked up tallies from Andrew Fournier at 4:40 and Jordan Fulton at 11:10 to claim the lead at 2-1. The Road Warriors wasted hardly any time in responding as Mark Voakes tied the game just 28 seconds after Fulton’s goal and allowed the Road Warriors to go into the first intermission tied at two. From there it was all Road Warriors. Igor Gongalsky (11:19, 16:03) scored his first two goals of the season, Julien Brouillette added a power play goal at 14:55 and Brian Stewart made 15 saves to give Greenville a 5-2 lead at the end of two. Kilpatrick netted his second of the night on the power play at 11:26 of the third to set the final score. The game turned chippy in the third with Brandon Wong, Gongalsky, T.J. Reynolds, and Connor Shields all getting into fights. The Road Warriors amassed a season-high 52 penalty minutes in the win.
11/27/10 – WHL 3 – KAL 1
The Nailers picked up a measure of revenge over Kalamazoo after the Wings had picked up a 5-0 win over the Nailers on November 14. Alex Smigelski provided the Nailers with a 1-0 lead at 17:43 of the first period with his fourth goal of the season. The score was a power play goal with assists going to Nick Petersen and Jason DeSantis. Kalamazoo got a late goal from Jordan Taylor with 12 seconds left in the first to tie it at one, but Wheeling pulled away from there. Kris Vernarsky potted the eventual game winner 4:34 into the second period while Andrew Lord added an insurance score at 13:20 of the same frame. The Nailers rode 21 saves from rookie goalie Patrick Killeen to victory as he shut the Wings down with 16 saves over the final two periods. Killeen grabbed the league lead in wins at eight with the victory.
WHAT’S ON TAP FOR TONIGHT:
The Road Warriors have an opportunity to close out their four-game northern trip with a spotless record. Should Greenville win, it will also establish the longest winning streak of its season at four games. The Road Warriors’ offense has been impressive in the first three games of the trip with a six goals per game average. With 72 goals through 18 games, the Road Warriors are tied with the Elmira Jackals for the best offense in the league. Greenville is 3-0-0 against the Nailers this season and have posted at least four goals in each of the wins.
Tonight’s game marks the beginning of the second quarter of the season for the Road Warriors. After the first 18 games of the season Greenville is on pace for a record of 48-20-4 as well as on pace to score 288 goals. The Road Warriors were the first team in the league to reach 12 wins on the season with their win on Friday night in Kalamazoo. Just over half the league has played at least one quarter of its schedule after last night’s action and Greenville is one of those 10 teams. The Road Warriors will hit the official half-way point of the season on Saturday, January 8 with a game in Gwinnett against the Gladiators.
Should the Road Warriors fall behind against the Nailers tonight they can take some comfort in knowing that they have been good at coming from behind in games lately. In all three of their wins on the northern trip the Road Warriors have been forced to play from behind. On Wednesday and Thursday the Nailers and Wings scored first, respectively, while on Friday the Road Warriors saw Kalamazoo fight back to take a 2-1 lead after Greenville had scored first. The Road Warriors are 4-2-0 this season when their opponent scores first and 5-5-1 overall on the season when trailing at any point in a game.
Mark your calendars! The Road Warriors are back on home ice on Thursday, December 2 to take on the Gwinnett Gladiators at 7:05 p.m. at the BI-LO Center. It will be another Dollar Drink Thursday with select fountain drinks and draught beers on sale for just $1! Great group seating is still available for your group of 10 or more. To find out how you can save on the box office price, receive preferred seating based on availability, and much more call 864-674-PUCK to speak to a Road Warriors group sales representative.
