GAME PREVIEW FOR APRIL 15 VS. WHEELING
GREENVILLE, SC – Tonight the Greenville Road Warriors face the Wheeling Nailers in Game Two of their Eastern Conference semifinals series. Game time is set for 7:35 p.m. at the BI-LO Center with the pre-game block party beginning at 5:00. The Nailers took Game One, 4-3, last night in Greenville.
RECAPPING THE ACTION:
GAME ONE, 4/14/11 – GRW 3 – WHL 4
Greenville could not keep its perfect home record during the playoffs intact while Wheeling stayed unbeaten away from WesBanco Arena. The Road Warriors struck first on Shane Harper’s first of the playoffs 1:16 in, but Wheeling put two shots past Chris Beckford-Tseu to grab the lead heading into the first intermission. The goals came courtesy of Tyler Murovich (8:33, ES) and Joey Haddad (10:45, SH). The only goal of the second came from Wheeling and Brandon DeFazio built the Nailers’ lead to 3-1 at 6:09 with his first pro playoff goal. A furious third period rally produced two goals for Greenville from Marc-Olivier Vallerand (4:46) and Brendan Connolly (12:04), but they were not enough to overcome thanks to Murovich’s second of the night at 9:42. Beckford-Tseu took the loss while making 17 saves. Greenville was 0-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
WHAT’S ON TAP FOR TONIGHT:
The Greenville Road Warriors and Wheeling Nailers meet tonight in Game Two of their Eastern Conference semifinals series. Greenville dropped Game One last night by a 4-3 score and fell behind 1-0 in the series. The loss was Greenville’s first against Wheeling, including the regular season, in seven games. The loss was Greenville’s first at home during the playoffs and snapped a five-game home winning streak dating back to March 24. In these organizations’ histories this is the third time they have met in the playoffs. Winston Salem beat Johnstown 4-3 in the 1989 Riley Cup Finals and Wheeling beat Johnstown 3-1 in the 1993 Riley Cup Quarterfinals.
The Road Warriors had 37 major penalties in the regular season which was the 15th highest total out of the 19 teams in the ECHL, and captain T.J. Reynolds had 12 of those. In the playoffs, though, Greenville leads the league with three major penalties. Reynolds was in two fights during the first round against Elmira and Chris McKelvie dropped the mitts with Alex Grant last night.
– Dating back to the regular season, Greenville is 6-1-1 in the last eight games that Jimmy Kilpatrick scored a goal.
– In the 2010 Kelly Cup Playoffs three of the four second round series were over in five games or fewer with three upsets.
– Greenville’s offense featured five different players that registered at least 50 points in the regular season. Only Kalamazoo (6) had more.
– Greenville has scored first in three of its five playoff games and is 2-1-0 when scoring first. Last night was the first time in the playoffs that Wheeling didn’t score first. They are 3-1-0 with the first goal.
– The Road Warriors are 9-3-0 in their last 12 home games dating back to March 4, 2011. They have out-scored opponents 45-26 over that stretch and recorded two shutouts.
Individual tickets for Game Two are on sale right now through the BI-LO Center Box Office and through all Ticketmaster outlets, including 1-800-TICKETMASTER and www.ticketmaster.com. It’s also a SPINX Friday Family Four-Pack night with four gold-level tickets, four hot dogs, four fountain drinks, four bags of chips, and four pretzels going for just $48! Group tickets are available for groups of 10 or more as well. Groups get discounted tickets and preferred seating based on availability. To book a group outing call 864-674-PUCK to talk to a Road Warriors representative.
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