ROAD WARRIORS WEEKLY #15: 1/24/11-1/30/11 

GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Road Warriors head into the all-star break with the most wins in the ECHL thanks to a 2-2-0 week last week. Following the four-day break for the All-Star Classic in Bakersfield, California, the Road Warriors will head north to battle the Reading Royals for a pair of games.

Record: 26-14-2, 54 pts., 1st place South Division

Leaders:
Goals –Marc-Olivier Vallerand/Mark Voakes: 15
Assists – Mark Voakes: 26
Points – Mark Voakes: 41
+/- – Connor Shields: +13
PIMs – T.J. Reynolds: 130
PPG – Mark Voakes: 5
SHG – Marc-Olivier Vallerand: 4
Wins – Dov Grumet-Morris: 15
GAA – Dov Grumet-Morris: 2.25
SVP – Dov Grumet-Morris: .924

This Week:

1/28 & 1/29 at Reading, 7:05 p.m. – Home (0-0-0), Away (0-0-0)

The Road Warriors continue their season-long seven-game road trip with a visit to the Sovereign Center to battle the Reading Royals. It is the first venture to Reading for the Road Warriors in a battle of division leaders. The Royals own the best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference at .667 and sport a 24-11-4 record which leads the Atlantic Division. Greenville, meanwhile, has the most wins (26) and points (54) in the ECHL entering the week. The pair of games could feature some offensive fireworks with two of the top scoring clubs battling it out. The Road Warriors average 3.43 goals per game which is third best in the league, while Reading is in fourth at 3.38. The Royals’ attack is led by Ben Gordon who has 42 points (19G, 23A) in 39 games. In goal, Michael Hutchinson is the top active goalie with a 4-2-3 record, a 2.95 goals-against average, and a .909 save percentage.

Day by Day:
Mon. 1/24: Off. All-Star Break
Tues. 1/25: Off. All-Star Break
Wed. 1/26: Off. All-Star Break
Thurs. 1/27: Off. All-Star Break
Fri. 1/28: Road Warriors at Royals, 7:05 p.m.
Sat. 1/29: Road Warriors at Royals, 7:05 p.m.

Sun. 1/30: Off

Day-by-Day schedule subject to change.

Broadcast Schedule:
Fri. 1/28: Road Warriors at Royals, 7:05 p.m.
Sat. 1/29: Road Warriors at Royals, 7:05 p.m.

All Road Warriors radio broadcasts can be heard online for free courtesy of America One. Point your browser to www.greenvilleroadwarriors.com and click “Listen Live” to join Ray Schmitt on the broadcasts. Road Warriors fans can also watch Internet TV broadcasts of the games by clicking here. All broadcasts begin 15 minutes prior to face off with the Road Warriors Pregame Show. Fans can also email Radio Ray and have their questions read during the broadcast! Send your questions to grwradioray@gmail.com.

Last Week: (2-2-0)

1/17 vs. Kalamazoo: W 4-3

The Road Warriors avenged last Saturday night’s loss with a 4-3 win over Kalamazoo on Monday afternoon. The game featured the earliest start time to a home game this season, but the Road Warriors were not sluggish to start the game. After killing off a 5-on-3 for Kalamazoo that lasted 1:57, Greenville’s Mark Voakes converted a 5-on-3 goal for a 1-0 lead 10:27 into the game. The Wings’ wouldn’t let Greenville take the lead into intermission as Andrew Fournier punched home his 17th goal of the season with 29 seconds left in the period. Greenville got the goal back, and then some, with a three-goal second period. The goals were provided by Paul McIlveen (2:38), Connor Shields (5:38), and Shane Harper (8:13) as the Road Warriors grabbed a 4-1 lead and took it to the third period. Kalamazoo’s offense did its darndest to tie the game and notched two goals on 18 shots. Both goals came on the power play with Patrick Asselin (0:38) and Justin Taylor (16:02) converting. Nic Riopel’s 16 saves in the period were enough to make the lead stand up and led Greenville to its 25th win of the season.

1/21 vs. South Carolina: L 3-5

A three-goal first period wasn’t enough to propel the Road Warriors to victory in their first-ever “Pink in the Rink” game. Greenville scored first and answered a pair of Stingrays goals to nab a 3-2 lead after the first frame. Trevor Glass’ second pro goal opened the scoring 4:49 in, but Trent Campbell netted the equalizer at 7:04. Eleven seconds later Greenville’s Mark Voakes re-upped the lead with his 15th of the season, only to have David de Kastrozza know the score at two at 17:12. Again it took less than a minute for the Road Warriors to respond with Connor Shields 12th at 17:40. But that was all the offense Greenville could muster and a goal by Dustin Stevenson in the second period tied the score at three, and Josh Godfrey and Tommy Goebel popped in third-period scores to give the Stingrays the win.

1/22 at South Carolina: L 1-5

Another good start fell by the wayside as Greenville fell for the second straight night to the Stingrays. Brandon Wong potted his 14th goal of his rookie campaign at 13:06 to stake the Road Warriors to a 1-0 advantage. That lead stood up through the first thanks to 12 saves from Nic Riopel. Greenville’s goalie only saw 13 shots for the rest of the game, but five found pay dirt. Josh Godfrey’s power play score 44 seconds into the second tied the game and he was followed by Nikita Kashirsky and Pierre-Luc O’Brien in the middle frame. Kashirsky and Rob Ricci did the damage in the third period to set the final.

1/23 at Gwinnett: W 2-1

After four consecutive losses at the hands of the Gladiators, Greenville was able to buck that trend yesterday. A steady 36-save performance by Nic Riopel made goals by Shane Harper and Connor Shields stand up for the victory. A scoreless first period saw the Road Warriors stave off a pair of Gladiators power plays and nearly score a shorthanded goal, but Mark Voakes was denied by Billy Sauer. In the second, Harper’s sixth of the season propelled the Road Warriors to a 1-0 lead at 7:26. Connor Shields scored what proved to be the game winner at 1:56 off of a nice set up by Harper from the left wing. Mike Forney broke up Riopel’s bid for a shutout at 3:56 with a slap shot from high on the left wing. A penalty to Sam Roberts with 2:25 remaining and put a huge dent in the Gladiators’ comeback bid. Greenville was unable to score on the ensuing power play, but did enough to protect the lead and preserve the win.

ONE-TIMERS:
Scoring Streaks:
Goals:

·

Assists:

·    S. Harper, 3 games (3A); 1/21-1/23

·    J. Brouillette, 2 games (2A); 12/10-12/11

Points:

·    J. Brouillette, 2 games (2G, 2A); 12/10-12/11

·    S. Harper, 8 games (4G, 7A); 11/18-1/23

·    C. Shields, 4 games (3G, 1A); 1/17-1/23

Quick Hits:

· Connor Shields has 10 points (6G, 4A) in 11 games in January and has registered at least one point in eight games this month.

· Shane Harper’s eight-game point streak is the second-longest by a Road Warrior this season. Brendan Connolly had 12 straight games with a point from November 11 to December 2.

· Greenville is 7-1-0 against teams from outside the South Division this season. This week’s games against the Royals will be the Road Warriors’ first against a team from the Atlantic Division.

· Nic Riopel’s 41 saves on Jan. 17 vs. Kalamazoo were the most in a game this season by the rookie netminder.

· After last week’s games the Road Warriors are 20-7-1 when scoring the first goal of a game. No other team has scored the first goal more times than the Road Warriors.

Mark your calendars! Don’t forget about these upcoming promotions:

– 2/9 vs. South Carolina, 7:05: Valentine’s Day Celebration with the Road Warriors. Come out for a chance to win an ultimate Valentine’s Day date package.

– 2/18 vs. South Carolina, 7:05: Join us as the Road Warriors and Rotary Club of Greenville team up to “Stop Polio Cold.” Specialty jerseys will be worn, and auctioned off, proceeds from the night’s ticket sales and chuck-a-puck sales will be donated to Rotary’s “End Polio Now” campaign, and much more is on tap.

– 2/19 vs. South Carolina, 7:05: The Road Warriors will hold their first ever Boy Scout Night at the BI-LO Center which features a post-game movie on the video board and overnight camping at the arena! The scouts who come out can even get a Road Warriors patch.

2/22 vs. Gwinnett, 7:05: This is the make-up date for the postponed game from December 14. The Road Warriors will be offering their “Twofer Tuesday” deal which gets you two blue-level tickets, two hot dogs, two boxes of popcorn, and two sodas for just $30!