ESTERO, Fla – The Greenville Road Warriors lost a 5-2 decision to the Florida Everblades in the opening game of the 2012 Kelly Cup Playoffs. Florida leads the best-of-five series one game to none.
The first period was littered with power play chances for both sides. Greenville had three opportunities to Florida’s two but it was the Everblades who capitalized first. Brendan Connolly was sent off for slashing to give Florida its first power play chances and before that expired, T.J. Reynolds was hit with a hooking minor. Ten seconds before Connolly’s sentence expired, David Fischer sent a slap shot past Nic Riopel to give Florida the lead. Greenville was sent back on the advantage with 1:31 to play in the stanza but couldn’t get a shot past John Muse and went into the intermission down by one.
Florida wrangled control of the game in the second period and scored three times to Greenville’s one to snag a 4-1 lead. It took 58 seconds for Trevor Bruess to capitalize on an odd-man rush and push the lead to 2-0. The goal came moments after Jeremy Gouchie sent a shot inches wide of an open net at the opposite end. The Road Warriors answered back 2:58 later with Chris McKelvie pouncing on a rebound and pushing it past Muse. Justin Bowers and Brendan Connolly set up the goal. Florida, however, responded with an even strength goal from David Rutherford at 11:21 and a 5-on-3 goal by Matt Beca at 13:41. Riopel saw plenty of rubber in the second with Florida registering 21 shots to Greenville’s six.
Sean Berkstresser breathed life into the Road Warriors with a power play goal a minute and 39 seconds into the third period. He collected the rebound of a Jyri Niemi point shot and quickly lifted it past Muse for his first goal of the playoffs. The Road Warriors had a brilliant chance a few moments later when Connolly caused a turnover that bounced to a wide open Marc-Oilvier Vallerand. He tried to tuck a backhander under the crossbar but Muse reached across for the glove save. Florida then got a goal on a deflection by Cedric McNicoll to extend the lead back to three. His first of the playoffs came 3:49 after Berkstresser’s tally. Neither team was able to tally from there despite mulitple power play chances on each side.
Riopel sustained the loss while making 41 saves on the night. Greenville went 1-for-6 on the power play and 7-for-9 on the penalty kill.
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