GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Road Warriors tied up their semi-final series with Wheeling, with a 2-1 overtime win Friday night at the BI-LO Center in Greenville, SC.
The first period started off much like game one, with both teams playing a tough style of hockey.
For Wheeling the first period was a bit marred by penalties. During the first frame, the Nailers’ were whistled for the games first four penalties, with three of the penalties all coming between the 13:12 and 14:58 mark of the period, which gave Greenville a two-man advantage, however Wheeling’s penalty kill dominated and successfully returned the team to even strength.
However, shortly after the successful Wheeling penalty kill, Greenville’s Shane Harper scored at the 17:33 mark of the first period off a pass from Brendan Connolly. The goal gave Greenville a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
The second period featured strong goaltender play, as neither team was able to find the back of the net. For Greenville, goaltender Nic Riopel went seven for seven in the second period. Wheeling’s Peter Delmas quitted Greenville’s offensive attack by turning away eleven shots on goal.
Aside from a minor penalty for both Greenville and Wheeling, the second period ended the same as it began, with Greenville up 1-0.
Entering the third period, Wheeling was able to score just forty-two seconds into the third frame, when Tim Crowder took a pass from his twin brother Paul Crowder and Joey Haddad to tie the game at one.
The defensive units took over the rest of the period as Wheeling was limited to six shots, and Greenville limited to nine shots on the Wheeling goal. The third period ticked down with the teams still tied at one, and the game headed to overtime.
Looking back to the first series, Wheeling saw overtime play in both game one and two against South Carolina, with Greenville going to overtime to win game four against Elmira. At one point of the overtime period, during a Greenville power play, it appeared the Greenville had won it when the puck crossed the goal line, however the play was blown dead when the puck became stuck underneath the pads of Peter Delmas.
Shortly after, Greenville’s regular season scoring leader, Jimmy Kilpatrick was able to get a puck by Peter Delmas, giving the Road Warriors the 2-1 win.
The Road Warriors’ win ties the series up at 1-1 and also forces a game five. The series will now head to Wheeling, where Greenville will need to win at least one of the following three road games in order to force a game six, which would be back in Greenville.
Game three is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 7:05pm.
Contact author at ryan.kouvolo@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.