ESTERO, FL – The Greenville Road Warriors dropped a 4-2 decision to the Florida Everblades in Game Two of their first round Kelly Cup Playoffs series on Wednesday night. The loss left Greenville trailing two games to none in the best-of-five series.
The Road Warriors did a solid job of limiting mistakes in the first period and, as such, held Florida to just five shots in the stanza. Two of those mistakes, though, resulted in Florida goals and left Greenville in a two-goal hole. A Brett Robinson hooking minor led to Mathieu Roy’s power play goal at 6:10 that gave Florida a 1-0 lead. Just 2:19 later Cedric McNicoll stole an outlet pass and lifted a wrist shot past Jason Missiaen and doubled the ‘Blades’ lead. Greenville responded with a 5-on-3 power play goal by Marc-Olivier Vallerand who sizzled a one-timer past John Muse from the high slot. Greenville out-shot Florida 9-5 in the stanza but trailed by one headed into the second.
The Road Warriors could not build on the momentum from a couple of late first-period chance and saw their deficit grow to three just past the midway point of the second. Florida received a power play goal by Leigh Salters at 7:42 and an even strength marker from David Rutherford at 13:06 to extend Florida’s lead to 4-1. The Road Warriors were faced with a shorthanded situation late in the second when Brett Robinson was hit for roughing. But just one second after the successful kill Vallerand tipped home a feed from Chris McKelvie for his second goal of the night. That was the finally tally of the period and Greenville went into the third down by two.
Greenville posted a game-high 13 shots in the third period but found the sledding tough in the Florida zone. Many shots came from out on the perimeter and Muse was effective in not leaving Greenville any rebounds to battle for. Despite their efforts, and a late power play, the Road Warriors were unable to slice into Florida’s lead. Missiaen was pulled for the extra attacker with roughly 90 seconds to play but Greenville never was able to set up the puck and work it around in the offensive zone.
Missiaen ended the night with 29 saves. The Road Warriors were 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
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