ROAD WARRIORS WEEKLY #23: 3/21/11-3/27/11 

GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Road Warriors took two wins out of three home games last week over the defending Kelly Cup champion Cincinnati Cyclones and clinched their first ever Kelly Cup Playoff berth in the process. This week they will try to lock up first place in the South Division with a pair of games against the South Carolina Stingrays and a huge home game against conference-leading Reading.

Record: 40-22-4, 84 pts., 1st place South Division

Leaders:
Goals – Marc-Olivier Vallerand: 25

Assists – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 39

Points – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 55

+/- – Brendan Connolly: +21

PIMs – T.J. Reynolds: 193

PPG – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 10

SHG – Marc-Olivier Vallerand: 4

Wins – Nic Riopel: 21

GAA – Dov Grumet-Morris: 2.32

SVP – Dov Grumet-Morris: .922

This Week:
3/22 & 3/27 at South Carolina, 7:05 p.m. & 4:00 p.m. – Home (5-3-0), Away (2-5-0)

This week’s schedule features the final two installments of the Palmetto State Rivalry between the Road Warriors and the Stingrays. Tuesday’s matchup is particularly intriguing because a Road Warriors win would ensure that the Stingrays could not catch the Road Warriors for first in the South Division. It will be a tall order for Greenville, though, because the Road Warriors have not won a game in North Charleston in this calendar year. Greenville’s last win at the Stingrays was a 4-3 shootout win on December 29. Since then South Carolina has won four consecutive games over the Road Warriors at the North Charleston Coliseum and out-scored the Road Warriors 14-5 over that span. Three of the four games have been decided by two goals or less, but the January 22 game in North Charleston was a comfortable 5-1 win for the ‘Rays. Greenville will try to keep down a South Carolina offense that has produced the fewest goals (182) in the Eastern Conference and has been shut out twice in its last five games.

3/24 vs. Reading, 7:05 p.m. – Home (0-0-0), Away (1-1-0)

The Road Warriors will be licking their chops to go to work against the Royals on Thursday night at the BI-LO Center. The teams enter this week tied for the most wins in the conference with 40, but Reading holds a one-point lead over the Road Warriors, with a game in hand, for first place in the conference. The Royals boast the league’s third-best offense at 3.55 goals per game while the Road Warriors are not far behind at 3.45. The Road Warriors and Royals played a pair of close games on January 28 and 29 at the Sovereign Center. Greenville came out with a 4-3 win in a shootout on the 28th, but Reading bounced back for a 4-2 win on the 29th after racing out to a 3-0 first period lead. Thursday’s matchup pits the Eastern Conference’s best home team (Greenville, 22-10-1) against the ECHL’s best road team (Reading, 19-10-2), but the Royals are just 6-4-3 against the South Division including 1-1-1 on the road vs. the South.

Day by Day:
Mon. 3/21: Practice at the BI-LO Center, 10:00 a.m.
Tues. 3/22: Road Warriors at Stingrays, 7:05 p.m.

Wed. 3/23: Practice at the BI-LO Center, 10:00 a.m.

Thurs. 3/24: Road Warriors vs. Royals, 7:05 p.m.

Fri. 3/25: Off
Sat. 3/26: Practice at the BI-LO Center, 10:00 a.m.

Sun. 3/27: Road Warriors at Stingrays, 4:00 p.m.

Day-by-Day schedule subject to change.
Broadcast Schedule:
Tues. 3/22: Road Warriors at Stingrays, 7:05 p.m.

Thurs. 3/24: Road Warriors vs. Royals, 7:05 p.m.

Sun. 3/27: Road Warriors at Stingrays, 4:00 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: (2-1-0)

3/17 vs. Cincinnati: W 3-2 SO

Greenville opened its three-game home series against Cincinnati with a dramatic 3-2 shootout victory, their first ever at the BI-LO Center. A scoreless first period saw play favor the visiting Cyclones as they out-shot the Road Warriors 10-6, but Greenville did create a few chances only to see three different shots hit the post. Andrew Rowe, playing his first home game for the Road Warriors, broke the scoreless tie 1:24 into the second period and gave himself a goal in two straight ECHL games. Casey Pierro-Zabotel tied the score just over four and a half minutes later by slamming a loose puck from the doorstep past Nic Riopel. In his first game back from a month-long stint in the AHL with Connecticut, Lee Baldwin put Greenville ahead 2-1 as he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Justin Bowers past Brian Foster at 15:52. Greenville took the one-goal advantage into the third, but Dan Eves wiped that out 40 seconds into the frame. Despite 12 shots in the third, and four in overtime, Greenville could not beat Foster again and the game was sent to a shootout. Justin Bowers, Brandon Wong, and Shane Harper scored in succession for the Road Warriors as they built a 3-0 shootout lead. After Brendan Connolly was denied by Foster, Riopel slammed the door on Brian O’Hanley and earned his third shootout win of the season. For the game, Riopel made 25 saves.

3/18 vs. Cincinnati: W 5-0

With Nic Riopel taking bereavement leave newly acquired goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu was forced into his first start as a Road Warrior last Friday. He proceeded to steal the show with a 27-save shutout and led the way to Greenville’s second win of the series. Marc-Olivier Vallerand’s power play goal 1:12 into the contest proved to be the eventual game winner and was his team-leading 25th of the season. Matt Schepke, in his first game back since his week-long loan to Bridgeport of the AHL, scored his first of two goals on the night 40 seconds after Vallerand’s goal to put the Road Warriors up 2-0. The lead remained the same until 15:17 of the second when Andrew Rowe potted his third goal of the season. Schepke duplicated his act from the first by scoring less than a minute after Rowe to build the lead to 4-0 at 16:14. Shortly after that, the Cyclones tried to vent their frustrations with some rough stuff and at the end of the melee Brad Cole, Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Brian O’Hanley, and Eric Kattelus were serving fighting majors. Vallerand and O’Hanley received game misconducts for secondary altercations. In all the teams combined for 106 penalty minutes with 55 going to the Road Warriors. Chris Chappell added a power play goal with just over two and a half minutes to play, and Beckford-Tseu registered five saves in the period to close the book on his first shutout of the season.

3/19 vs. Cincinnati: L 1-3

The Road Warriors could not overcome a pair of third period goals by Cincinnati’s Barret Ehgoetz and dropped the final game of their three-game series against the Cyclones. After a scoreless first period, Cincinnati was able to grab a 1-0 lead very early in the second. Brendan Connolly sustained a slashing minor late in the first, and a delay of game minor to Marc-Olivier Vallerand 43 seconds into the second put the Cyclones on a 5-on-3. Brian O’Hanley cashed in a goal three seconds into the advantage with a slap shot from the left wing. Cincinnati had multiple chances on the power play to extend the lead, but stellar goaltending by Chris Beckford-Tseu kept Greenville within striking distance. Starting with a boarding major to Woody Klassen at 7:04, the Road Warriors were shorthanded for nearly nine consecutive minutes including nearly a full minute of a 5-on-3 disadvantage. With some blocked shots and big saves the Road Warriors survived the challenge and were able to tie the game late in the third period. Brendan Connolly set up Shane Harper’s 17th of the season with eight minutes to play and the Road Warriors drew even on the scoreboard. It only took Cincinnati 1:15 to respond as Ehgoetz whistled a shot past Beckford-Tseu high to the glove side for the game winner. Ehgoetz added an empty-net goal with 37 seconds to play to salt away the victory. Beckford-Tseu had 22 saves on the night.

ONE-TIMERS:
Scoring Streaks:
Goals:

Assists:

·    B. Parlett, 3 games (4A); 2/11-2/15

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

·    B. Connolly, 2 games (3A); 3/18-3/19

Points:

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

·    B. Parlett, 3 games (1G, 3A); 2/11-2/15

·    B. Connolly, 2 games (3A); 3/18-3/19

Quick Hits:

· The Road Warriors’ shootout win on March 17 clinched their first ever Kelly Cup Playoff berth. They need a win on Tuesday at South Carolina to clinch a South Division championship and home ice in the first round.

· Five of Greenville’s final six games are against South Carolina (2) and Gwinnett (3). The Road Warriors are a combined 14-15-0 against those two teams with seven victories over each opponent.

· The Road Warriors have surrendered 13 goals in their last five road games (2.6/game). Their team goals-against average on the road of 2.96 is the third best in the ECHL.

· Greenville has the eighth most power play chances in the league with 324 and is also eighth with 59 PPG on the season. Their road power play, however, is ranked fourth in the league at 20.5 percent.

· Marc-Olivier Vallerand tops ECHL rookies in goal scoring with 25, and is fifth overall with 50 points. Out of the top 20 rookie scorers, Vallerand has played the second most games at 64.

Mark your calendars! Don’t forget about these upcoming promotions:
3/24 vs. Reading, 7:05: Join the Road Warriors for Dollar Drink Thursday at the BI-LO Center. Select draught beers and fountain drinks will be on sale for just $1! Stop by the stage behind Section 106 for a free pre-game concert from Taylor Moore.

3/31 vs. Gwinnett, 7:05: Join the Road Warriors for Dollar Drink Thursday at the BI-LO Center. Select draught beers and fountain drinks will be on sale for just $1! Stop by the stage behind Section 106 for a free pre-game concert from The Piedmont Boys.

4/2 vs. Gwinnett, 7:05: The Road Warriors will host Fan Appreciation Day for their final home game of the season.