ROAD WARRIORS MAUL JACKALS 

VERSUS  

ELMIRA, NY – The Greenville Road Warriors received goals from from five different skaters as they played to a 5-2 win over the Elmira Jackals in Game One of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series on Tuesday night.

The Elmira Jackals appeared to be in a giving mood in the first period as they gave the Road Warriors three power play opportunities and Greenville was all too happy to take advantage. After a fight between T.J. Reynolds and Brian Lebler 1:57 into the game, Elmira took consecutive penalties at 6:05 and 6:45 which afforded Greenville a lengthy 5-on-3 power play. It didn’t take much time to convert as Jimmy Kilpatrick one-timed a shot past goalie Marco Cousineau just 13 seconds into the two-man advantage. The Road Warriors’ second power play goal was a bit harder to earn, but with one second left on a boarding minor to A.J. Perry, Brandon Wong lifted a loose puck over Cousineau at 14:04. Wong’s marker was set up by Shane Harper and Brad Cole. Nic Riopel denied all six shots he saw in the period to maintain Greenville’s two-goal advantage.

Not wanting to lose touch with the Road Warriors, Elmira came out with a ton of energy early in the second period and picked up its first goal of the game from quite a familiar source. League-leading scorer Justin Donati (94 points in the regular season) put the Jackals on the board at 2:53 of the second thanks to a back-door feed from Eric Lampe. The Road Warriors shook off the damage of that goal, got some big saves from Riopel in the following minutes, and then went on the offensive. Former Jackal Brendan Connolly won an aggressive puck battle in front of Cousineau and backhanded home a rebound off of Shane Harper’s shot from the high slot. That goal at 9:27 put Greenville back up by two at 3-1, and an old familiar face built the lead to three in the waning minutes of the period. In his first game with Greenville in a month, Mark Voakes took a backdoor feed from Justin Bowers and tapped it past Cousineau with 56 seconds left in the frame. Voakes’ power play goal was Greenville’s third of the night and was also set up by Kilpatrick. Riopel was busy in the second and turned away 11 of the 12 shots he faced.

Elmira got some offense from an unexpected source in the third period to pull within two goals of Greenville early one. Working a rush opportunity with Dale Mahovsky and Lebler, Josh Brittain made an aggressive drive to the front of the net and chipped a shot past Riopel with 5:40 gone by in the frame. Brittain only had three goals in 38 games during the regular season for the Jackals. Riopel bounced back in fine fashion from there and bid away each shot he faced for the rest of the period. Elmira had some quality chances to tie as Connolly took a pair of penalties in the third period, but neither of them came to fruition. Cousineau was pulled for the extra attacker with just over a minute remaining, but the only scoring done in that time frame was an empty-net goal by Marc-Olivier Vallerand with 16 seconds left to play.

Riopel earned the win with 30 saves. Greenville went 3-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

Mark your calendars! The Road Warriors return to home ice for Game Three of their quarterfinals series with Elmira on Friday, April 8. Start time is set for 7:05 p.m. at the BI-LO Center. Pre-game festivities begin at 5:00 p.m. with a block party on the plaza outside of the Charter Business Entrance. Free food from Quaker Steak and Lube, as well as half-priced beer, will be available for anyone holding a ticket to the game and Retro will be playing a free concert. Individual tickets start as low as $9 and can be purchased at the BI-LO Center Box Office or any Ticketmaster outlet. Groups of 10 or more get discounted tickets and preferred seating based on availability. Group outings can be booked by calling 864-674-PUCK.