ROAD WARRIORS WEEKLY #25: 4/4/11-4/10/11 

GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Road Warriors closed out the 2010-11 regular season with three straight wins over the Gwinnett Gladiators and won the Eastern Conference regular season title. Now they face the eighth-seeded Elmira Jackals in the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Regular Season Leaders:
Goals – Marc-Olivier Vallerand: 28

Assists – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 44

Points – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 63

+/- – Brendan Connolly: +28

PIMs – T.J. Reynolds: 206

PPG – Jimmy Kilpatrick: 12

SHG – Marc-Olivier Vallerand: 4

Wins – Nic Riopel: 24

GAA – Dov Grumet-Morris: 2.32

SVP – Dov Grumet-Morris: .922

This Week:
4/4, 4/5 at Elmira, 7:05 p.m. & 4/8, 4/9 (if necessary) vs. Elmira, 7:35 p.m. – Home (1-1-0), Away (0-0-0)

The Road Warriors and Jackals begin their best-of-five playoff series at 7:05 p.m. tomorrow night at First Arena in Elmira. The series will shift back to Greenville for Game Three on Friday night at 7:35 p.m., and Games Four and Five (if necessary) on Saturday and next Monday at 7:35. It is Greenville’s first trip to this building, but the Road Warriors aren’t unfamiliar with the Jackals. The teams split a pair of high-scoring affairs at the BI-LO Center on March 5 and 6. The Road Warriors finished the regular season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a 46-22-4 record while Elmira was eighth at 32-30-10. Elmira lost five straight games to close out the regular season while Greenville won each of its last six games.

Day by Day:

Mon. 4/4: Practice at First Arena, 12:00 noon
Tues. 4/5: Road Warriors at Elmira Jackals, 7:05 p.m.

Wed. 4/6:

Road Warriors at Elmira Jackals, 7:05 p.m.

Thurs. 4/7: Travel Day, Off

Fri. 4/8:Road Warriors vs. Elmira Jackals, 7:35 p.m.
Sat. 4/9: Road Warriors vs. Elmira Jackals, 7:35 p.m. (if necessary)

Sun. 4/10:Off

Day-by-Day schedule subject to change.
Broadcast Schedule:
Tues. 4/5: Road Warriors at Elmira Jackals, 7:05 p.m.
Sat. 4/9: Road Warriors vs. Elmira Jackals, 7:35 p.m. (if necessary)

Wed. 4/6: Road Warriors at Elmira Jackals, 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: (3-0-0)

3/31 vs. Gwinnett: W 4-3 OT

In the first meeting between Greenivlle and Gwinnett in over a month, the Gladiators got the early drop on the Road Warriors only to see it slip away over the course of the game. First period power play goals by Mike Forney (6:47) and Kyle Kucharski (10:26) pulled Gwinnett ahead by a 2-0 count. Chris Beckford-Tseu held Gwinnett down for the rest of the period and allowed for Brandon Wong’s tally at 15:42 to pull Greenville within one. Late in the second period, a power play goal by Andrew Rowe evened the score at two and then 1:02 later Shane Harper put the Road Warriors ahead by one with only 1:02 remaining in the second. At 9:40 of the third, Gwinnett’s John-Scott Dickson tipped a point shot past Beckford-Tseu for a score that eventually sent the game to overtime. There it was Harper, with his second goal of the night, who provided the winning score just 49 seconds into the sudden death frame. Beckford-Tseu did not see a shot in overtime but made 29 saves in picking up his fourth win as a Road Warrior.

4/1 at Gwinnett: W 4-1

None of the previous night’s dramatics were on hand last Friday at The Arena at Gwinnett Center as the Road Warriors used a pair of two-goal outbursts to down the Gladiators in their final road game. Shane Harper continued his strong play last week with the opening goal at 6:13 of the first period with a shot from the low left wing that beat Garrett Zemlak. Five minutes and 33 seconds later Sean Berkstresser, who set up Harper’s goal, shot a puck that bounced off of the end glass, hit Zemlak in the shoulder, and caromed into the net for his first shorthanded goal of the season and a 2-0 Greenville lead. Nic Riopel was busy in the frame as he turned away 13 shots to keep Greenville ahead by a pair. In the second the lead doubled thanks to scores from Andrew Rowe (6:20) and Grant Farrell (6:40) that were just 20 seconds apart. Farrell’s goal chased Zemlak from the net and brought in Chris Carrozzi. He denied each of the 14 shots he faced through the rest of the game and gave Gwinnett a chance. Mike Forney’s score with 16 seconds left in the second drew the Gladiators within three and appeared to give them some life heading into the third. Riopel sucked that out of them, though, with his 14 saves in the frame and helped Greenville skate away with the two points. It was Riopel’s 23rd win of the season.

4/2 vs. Gwinnett: W 7-2

In their final home game of the regular season, the Road Warriors gave a raucous crowd of over 4,000 fans plenty to cheer about with one last drubbing of Gwinnett. The offensive barrage began in earnest for Greenville with a power play goal by Shane Harper 10:42 into the first. That was the lone goal of the frame despite Greenville having over a minute on a 5-on-3 power play late in the frame. The Road Warriors poured it on in the second, though, with four goals that came from Andrew Rowe (3:45), Harper (13:10), Brendan Connolly (15:41), and Justin Bowers (16:20). Gwinnett got a piece of the action, as well, as Tim Filangieri sent a shot past Nic Riopel 30 seconds after Bowers’ tally. That was the only shot of 33 that slipped past Riopel while Greenville tacked on two goals for good measure in the final minute of the third. Chris Chappell potted his ninth of the season, with Greenville on the power play, at 19:05 and then he helped set up T.J. Reynolds’ first goal of the season with 16 seconds left on the clock. Riopel earned his 24th victory of the season.

Scoring Streaks:
Goals:

·    S. Harper, 3 games (5G); 3/31-4/2

·    A. Rowe, 3 games (3G); 3/31-4/2

Assists:

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

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

·    W. Cunningham, 2 games (3A); 4/1-4/2

·    G. Farrell, 3 games (3A); 3/12-3/27

·    S. Berkstresser, 2 games (3A); 4/1-4/2

·    C. Clackson, 2 games (2A); 4/1-4/2

·    B. Connolly, 3 games (3A); 3/31-4/2

Points:

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

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

·    B. Connolly, 8 games (3G, 8A); 3/18-4/2

·    W. Cunningham, 2 games (3A); 4/1-4/2

·    G. Farrell, 2 games (1G,1A); 4/1-4/2

·    C. Clackson, 2 games (2A); 4/1-4/2

·    S. Berkstresser, 2 games (1G, 3A); 4/1-4/2

·    S. Harper, 7 games (6G, 4A); 3/19-4/2

·    A. Rowe, 4 games (3G, 1A); 3/22-4/2

Quick Hits:

· 12 Road Warriors players are playing in the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the first time. Nine of those are rookies.

· Five of the seven first-round series in last year’s Kelly Cup Playoffs went all five games with the higher seed winning two.

· Greenville’s offense featured five different players that registered at least 50 points in the regular season. The only team with more was Kalamazoo (6).

· Nic Riopel won each of his final five starts of the regular season. It was his longest win streak of the campaign and second only to Dov-Grumet Morris’ seven straight wins from 11/18-12/5/10.

· Road Warriors were 8-for-25 (32%) on the power play and 18-for-21 (85.7%) on the penalty kill over their six-game win streak to close out the regular season.

Mark your calendars! Don’t forget about these upcoming promotions:
4/8 vs. Elmira, 7:05: The Road Warriors will be hosting a huge pre-game block party on the plaza outside of the Charter Business Entrance at the BI-LO Center. Get there early as Quaker Steak and Lube is providing free food and there will be half-priced beer leading up to the start of the game!