Greenville Grrrowl Rout Mississippi 8-1 In Conference Finals Opener
April 25, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Greenville Grrrowl News Release
GREENVILLE â The East Coast Hockey League's Southeast Division regular-season and playoff champion Greenville Grrrowl went 4 for 8 on the power play, 6 for 6 on the penalty kill, scored a shorthanded goal and received points from 12 different players in an 8-1 win over the Southwest Division playoff champion Mississippi Sea Wolves Thursday at the BI-LO Center. The win gave the Grrrowl a one game to none advantage in the Southern Conference Finals.
The Grrrowl grabbed a lead they would never surrender with a pair of first-period, power-play goals. Martin Masa opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the playoffs 3:15 into the game on assists from Colin Pepperall and Steve Rymsha.
Pepperall then made it 2-0 Grrrowl with his third goal of the post season on assists from Simon Gamache and Tyrone Garner at 10:30. Mississippi pulled to within 2-1 on Brent Gauvreau's team-leading fifth goal of the playoffs at 14:26 on a nice assist from Steffon Walby.
The Grrrowl put the game away with a pair of two-goal outbursts early and mid way through the second period. Ryan Stewart made it 3-1 :30 into the middle frame with an unassisted, shorthanded goal, his second goal of the playoffs, and Gamache upped the lead to 4-1 :52 later with his ninth goal of the post season redirecting a Luke Sellars shot while on the power play. Zdenek Blatny, appearing in just his second playoff game with the Grrrowl after being returned from the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves Wednesday, earned the second assist on the Gamache goal.
Gamache upped the lead to 5-1 with his League-leading tenth goal and 16th point of the playoffs at 11:21 of the period on assists from Blatny and Jonathan Roy. Pepperall made it 6-1 with an unassisted goal, his second goal of the game and fourth of the post season, :54 later.
Rymsha added his third goal of the playoffs, and the team's third on the power play in the game, at 2:17 of the third period on assists from Masa and Jeff Dessner to make it 7-1, and Damon Whitten closed out the scoring with another power-play goal, the fourth of the game for the Grrrowl and the first goal of the post season for Whitten, on assists from David Bell and Pepperall making it 8-1 with 4:52 left to play.
The loss was Mississippi's worst of the season and first since a 5-3 road loss to the Arkansas RiverBlades on March 26th. The Sea Wolves had won nine straight games including six straight to start the post season.
The eight goals were the most the Grrrowl scored at any point this season and are the most by any team in a playoff game this year surpassing the mark of seven set by the Grrrowl in game two of the division finals versus the Pee Dee Pride two weeks ago.
Game two of the series will be tomorrow at the BI-LO Center at 7:05 p.m. The series will shift to Mississippi for game three Sunday at 7:05 p.m.
The winner of the Southern Conference Finals will face the winner of the Northern Conference Finals between the Dayton Bombers and Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies in the 2002 ECHL Kelly Cup Championship Finals. Dayton leads that series one game to none with game two slated for tomorrow in Atlantic City.
All Grrrowl playoff games, and "The Grrrowl Hour" Mondays at 7 p.m., are broadcast live on NewsRadio 1330 & 950 WORD-AM and at grrrowl.com.
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