VERSUS 
GREENVILLE, SC – On the night of their inaugural “Pink in the Rink” game, the Greenville Road Warriors fell to the South Carolina Stingrays by a score of 5-3. The loss dropped their record to 25-13-2 on the season.
A see-saw first period saw Greenville battle with a feisty South Carolina club looking for a road win. Greenville, though, grabbed an early lead and never trailed in the frame. Off of a hard-working cycle by the line of Mark Voakes, Marc-Olivier Vallerand, and Jimmy Kilpatrick, Trevor Glass netted his second goal of the season to give Greenville a 1-0 lead. Voakes sent a soft pass to the slot and Glass hammered it past Jared DeMichiel at the 4:49 mark. South Carolina bounced back to tie it with a goal from Trent Campbell at 7:04, but Voakes answered back just 11 seconds later. The one-timer goal was set up by Vallerand and Kilpatrick off of the ensuing faceoff. Nine minutes and 57 seconds later the Stingrays tied it with a long-range shot from David de Kastrozza. Again, though, the Road Warriors wasted little time in responding with the go-ahead goal. Connor Shields took a pass on the left wing from Blake Parlett and made a great move to beat Josh Godfrey in open ice. Shields then used a deke to the backhand to move DeMichiel out of position and net his 12th goal of the season at 17:40.
With the one-goal lead in the second period the Road Warriors looked to clamp down defensively against the Stingrays. For the most part, the strategy worked, but when Greenville took its first penalty of the night, the Stingrays were there to take advantage. From the point Dustin Stevenson one-timed a shot past the blocker of Nic Riopel to knot the game at three. The goal was Stevenson’s second of the season with assists coming from Tommy Goebel and Campbell. The Road Warriors tested DeMichiel with eight shots in the frame, but could not solve the rookie netminder.
South Carolina’s Samson Mahbod took a penalty late in the second that left the Road Warriors with 1:05 of power play time to work with at the start of the third. But that man-advantage went by the wayside and it came back to hurt the Road Warriors later in the frame. When Sean Berkstresser took a high-sticking minor with 12:37 gone by in the third it set the stage for the ‘Rays’ go-ahead score. Josh Godfrey beat Riopel with a slapshot from the left point at the 14:08 mark to give South Carolina a 4-3 lead. Goebel added a redirect goal 55 seconds after Godfrey’s score to give South Carolina some insurance through the final minutes of the game.
Riopel turned aside 24 of the 29 shots he faced while the Road Warriors went 0-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Mark your calendars! The Road Warriors will return home from a seven-game road trip on Wednesday, February 9 to take on the South Carolina Stingrays at 7:05 p.m. at the BI-LO Center. The Road Warriors will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with special games and promotions throughout the evening. Group seating remains available for the game and you can call 864-674-PUCK to book your group outing and save off the box office price, receive preferred seating based on availability, and enjoy other great benefits.
