Jackals even series with win

ELMIRA, NY – The Elmira Jackals evened their first round series with the Greenville Road Warriors on Wednesday night with an impressive 6-3 win.
 
Elmira’s scoring drive began just five minutes into the game when Eric Lampe put a shot past Greenville’s Nic Riopel off a Yannick Tifu pass at the 5:08 mark.
 
Greenville tied the game at one several minutes later when Brendan Connolly scored on the power play with assists from Wes Cunningham and Lee Baldwin at 12:05. The Road Warriors quickly took the lead at the 13:41 mark of the first when Defenseman Sam Klassen found the back of the Elmira net after receiving a pass from Mark Voakes, and was able to take the lead into the first intermission.
 
With Greenville up 2-1, both teams came out of the locker room playing strong defense and both receiving solid play between the pipes. In the second period alone, Greenville took twelve shots on the Elmira net, with Elmira taking thirteen shots. It teams alternated penalties throughout a tough second period.
 
Finally, a few minutes before the end of period, Elmira’s league leading scorer Justin Donati tied the game, when he and teammates R.J. Anderson and Eric Regan were able to set up a good play in the offensive zone.
 
In the third, both teams came out swinging, but the wheels seemed to come off the Road Warriors game plan and Elmira was able to take control of the game when A.J. Perry put the Jackals ahead for good at 11:03 of the final period. Yannick Tifu made it 4-2 at 13:21.Mark Voakes cut the margin to 4-3 at 18:25, but the Jackals clinched the game with a pair of empty-net goals at the tail end of the third period.
 
“We had too many penalties,” said Voakes. “Elmira has a good power play.”
 
The Jackals’ win will extend the series to at least four games.
 
The series heads to Greenville for the remainder of the series, with game three played on Friday night and game four on Saturday. If needed, game five has been scheduled for Monday, April 11. The puck drops for all three games at 7:35pm.
 
Contact author at ryan.kouvolo@prohockeynews.com .