VERSUS 
BY: Ray Schmitt, Voice of the Greenville Road Warriors
The Greenville Road Warriors used three power play goals to pick up their second win of the season at the North Charleston Coliseum by a 4-1 score on Tuesday night. The win improved Greenville to 27-17-3 on the season and second place in the South Division.
Click here for tonight’s box score.
In seven of eight prior meetings between the Road Warriors and Stingrays this season South Carolina had held Greenville without a power play goal. The Road Warriors quickly put any chance of that happening in Tuesday’s game to rest by scoring a pair of first period power play goals. Brett Robinson tipped in a Lee Baldwin point shot 3:44 into the game to spot Greenville a 1-0 lead. Then with 1:32 left in the frame another point shot by Baldwin deflected off of ‘Rays goalie Billy Sauer to an open Jeremy Gouchie who chipped in his first power play goal of the season. Jason Missiaen made 13 saves in the period, including two breakaways by Pierre-Luc O’Brien, to ensure the advantage after 20 minutes of play.
In a penalty-filled second period it was Greenville’s power play coming through again to stretch the lead to 3-0. But before they could extend the lead, the Road Warriors had to get some exceptional work from Missiaen to help kill off a 21-second 5-on-3 Stingrays power play. Once they got the manpower advantage, it was same song, third verse as a Baldwin point shot created a rebound chance that Jeff Prough pounced on and sent past Sauer. The goal tied Prough with Marc-Olivier Vallerand for the team lead with nine power play goals. South Carolina responded with an even strength goal by Matt Scherer with 4:52 to play.
The third period was Greenville’s time to shine defensively as the Road Warriors limited the Stingrays to just seven shots on goal. South Carolina’s best chance to start a comeback came when Jeff Prough took a kneeing minor 51 seconds into the period. One shot was all South Carolina could manage on the advantage and it was one of Missiaen’s seven saves in the stanza. Greenville only launched six shots of its own in the frame, and one was an empty-net goal by Brandon Wong with 1:26 to play to seal the victory.
Missiaen stopped 36 shots in earning his ninth win of the season. The Road Warriors were 3-for-5 on the power play and 7-for-7 on the penalty kill.
Leave a Reply