GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Greenville Road Warriors and the Wheeling Nailers dropped the puck on their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final series on Thursday night at the BI-LO Center in Greenville, SC. The Road Warriors enters the series after a 3-1 first round series win against the Elmira Jackals. Wheeling defeated the South Carolina Stingrays in their first round series, also by a 3-1 margin.
The Road Warriors and the Nailers started their series both playing a very physical game of hockey. Greenville’s Shane Harper didn’t waste much time in starting this game. After just one minute and sixteen seconds, the forward found an opening on the right side of the Wheeling net, and got the puck passed Nailer goaltender Peter Delmas with Brendan Connolloy and Brandon Wong earning the assists. Following the goal, both teams really began to lay some heavy hits and checks into the boards. At one point it seemed as though several fights would breakout after Road Warrior captain T.J. Reynolds checked a Nailer forward hard into the corner to the left of Greenville’s net, however the officials were able to break things up before any gloves came off. Reynold’s was called for boarding and sent to the penalty box for two minutes at the six minute mark of the first, however Greenville was able to kill the penalty. However thirty-three seconds following the penalty kills, Greenville gave up a goal to Wheeling’s Tyler Murovich, assisted by Tim Crowder and Mickael Bedard. Shortly after, with Greenville on a power-play, Wheeling’s Joey Haddad caught Greenville’s Chris Beckford-Yseu out of position and scored an unassisted, short-handed goal at 10:45 of the first period. The goal gave Wheeling a 2-1 lead, which remained the case as the period came to close and the teams headed to the locker room for the first intermission.
After a thrilling first period, it seemed as if the team’s settled in during the second period. Wheeling then went up 3-1, when Brandon DeFazio scored off a Tim Crowder pass at the 6:09 mark of the second period. Following the goal, the goaltenders took the game over. Greenville took fifteen shots in the second, however was held scoreless by Delmas. Wheeling feel victim to Greenville’s defensive unit and was only able to fire off a total of eight shots during the period, only allowing the goal by DeFazio.
With the Greenville fans getting loud by shaking cowboys, keys, etc…the teams started the third period. Greenville came out with more determination in its game to start the third period and climbed back within a goal very early on. A pass from behind the net by Justin Bowers set off a mad scramble at the net front. Marc-Olivier Vallerand slipped away from his defender and fed a backhand shot underneath Delmas and into the net at 4:46. Chris McKelvie’s fight with Alex Grant at 7:05 brought the crowd to its feet and energized Greenville’s attack. Shane Harper had a good look from the left wing, but his shot was ruled to have hit the post and never fully crossed the goal line. Minutes after that a puck was loose behind Delmas, but Brandon Wong could not tap it home. Murovich then netted his second of the game with a long-range shot that beat Beckford-Tseu at 9:42 and restored Wheeling’s two-goal lead at 4-2. Two minutes and thirty eight seconds later Brendan Connolly forced a rebound past Delmas and drew Greenville to within one again, but despite pulling Beckford-Tseu for the extra attacker the tying goal never came.
Wheeling went on to win game one of the semi-final series, 4-3. Game two is set for tonight, Friday, April 15, 2011 in Greenville, SC. A Wheeling win would give them a strong advantage as the series will then head to Wheeling for the next three games. A Greenville win will tie the series up, however the Road Warriors will still need to win on the road in order to clinch the series and advance.
Contact author at ryan.kouvolo@prohockeynews.com
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