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Road Warriors close in on division lead

Published on December 8, 2014 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


The Greenville Road Warriors returned home from an eight-game road trip last week, and continued their solid play at home, winning a pair of games against Orlando, improving their ECHL-best home winning percentage to .857. Greenville is 6-1-0 on home ice, and is 13-9-0 overall, good enough for third place in the East Division, just three points behind division-leading Florida.

On Thursday, the Road Warriors picked up a 4-1 win over the Solar Bears. Chris McCarthy scored a pair of goals and Ben Power tallied two assists to lead the offense while Jeff Malcolm stopped 37 shots to pick up the win in goal.

The next night, Greenville got off to a quick start scoring five goals in a 5:02 span of the first period on its way to a 7-2 victory. Vinny Saponari had four assists while Trevor Parkes (2g-1a), Kyle Jean (2g), Tyler Brown (1g-1a), Shawn O'Donnell (1g-1a) and Ryan Hegarty (2a) all had multi-point games. Malcolm, who has been the winning goaltender in each of the Road Warriors' six home wins, was once again strong in net, making 42 saves on 44 Orlando shots.

The Road Warriors have boasted a balanced offense to this point in the season as the club has no players in the top 38 of the league scoring leaders. Greenville is 12-0-0 when scoring at least three goals and ranks 10th in the ECHL with an average of 3.18 goals per game. Saponari is the club's leading scorer with 17 points (7g-10a) while Jean leads the Road Warriors with eight goals.

Malcolm is tied for the league lead with 11 wins, is second with 417 saves, is tied for second with a 2.13 goals-against average and is third with a .929 save percentage.

The Road Warriors are in action twice this week, hosting Cincinnati on Thursday before visiting South Carolina on Saturday.

Closing in on history

Kalamazoo's Sam Ftorek is closing in on ECHL history. Ftorek has appeared in all 20 games for the K-Wings this season, giving him 784 games played in his ECHL career. He is within five games of tying the League's all-time record of 789 held by Louis Dumont, who will be inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame next month. If he plays in each of Kalamazoo's upcoming games, Ftorek will set the new ECHL record for career games played on Saturday at Toledo. It will be the second milestone of the week for Ftorek, who is scheduled to play his 1,000th career professional game at home on Friday against the Walleye.

A look ahead

Games to watch in the ECHL during the week ahead. Watch ECHL games live on ECHL.TV.

Eastern Conference

Elmira at Florida (Wednesday)

The top two teams in the East Division meet for the first time this season. Florida enters the week 8-2-0 in its last 10 games and leads the division by two points over Elmira. The Everblades have played a league-low six home games this season while the Jackals' seven road games is tied for the second fewest in the league.

Western Conference

Alaska at Idaho (Friday and Saturday)

After an uncharastically slow start to the season, Alaska has evened its record at .500 with an 8-2-0 mark in its last 10 games, including a pair of wins over Idaho in Anchorage two weeks ago. The Steelheads lead the Pacific Division with 28 points, while the Aces sit in fifth place, but are just eight points behind Idaho.

Divisions

North Division

- Shayne Taker is tied for third among rookies in plus-minus at +9.

- The Cyclones are 4-1-1 on the road.

- Cincinnati is at South Carolina on Tuesday, Greenville on Thursday and Gwinnett on Saturday.

- Kale Kerbashian leads the IceMen with 15 points (6g-9a).

- Evansville has outscored its opponents 24-13 in the third period.

- The IceMen host Fort Wayne on Friday and Saturday.

- James Martin is on a four-game point streak (2g-6a).

- The Komets are third in the league with 3.85 goals per game.

- Fort Wayne visits Evansville on Friday and Saturday and hosts Toledo on Sunday.

- Garett Bembridge is on a five-game goal streak (6g).

- Indy is second on the power play at 25.6 percent (20-for-78).

- The Fuel are at Florida on Friday and Saturday.

- Justin Taylor became Kalamazoo's all-time leader in goals (70) on Friday.

- The K-Wings are fourth on the penalty kill at 86.9 percent (73-for-84).

- Kalamazoo hosts Gwinnett on Wednesday and Toledo on Friday before visiting the Walleye on Saturday.

- Marek Tvrdon is on a seven-game point streak (3g-8a).

- Toledo has scored 33 goals in its last five games.

- The Walleye host Gwinnett on Tuesday, visit Wheeling on Wednesday and Kalamazoo on Friday, host the K-Wings on Saturday and travel to Fort Wayne on Sunday.

- Zack Torquato 's first assist on Saturday gave him 131 career points as a Nailer - placing him 10th in team history.

- The Nailers have scored in the first minute of a period on four occasions, including three times in the first minute of a game.

- Wheeling hosts Toledo on Wednesday, visits Reading on Friday and Saturday and hosts the Royals on Sunday.

East Division

- Steven Shamanski leads rookie defensemen with five goals and 15 points.

- Elmira 11-0-1 when scoring three or more goals.

- The Jackals are at Orlando on Tuesday and Thursday and Florida on Wednesday.

- Cameron Burt is tied for the league lead in plus-minus at +16.

- The Everblades are 12-1-0 when scoring first.

- Florida hosts Elmira on Wednesday and Indy on Friday and Saturday.

- Jeff Malcolm is 6-0-0 at home with a 1.48 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage.

- Greenville is 7-0-0 when scoring at least one power-play goal.

- The Road Warriors host Cincinnati on Thursday and travel to South Carolina on Saturday.

- Casey Pierro-Zabotel is fourth with a 29.6 percent shooting percentage (8-for-27).

- The Gladiators are 4-1-1 when leading after one period.

- Gwinnett is at Toledo on Tuesday and Kalamazoo on Wednesday and hosts Cincinnati on Saturday and South Carolina on Sunday.

- Denver Manderson is on a 13-game point streak (7g-13a).

- Orlando went 8-5-0 on its 13-game road trip.

- The Solar Bears host Elmira on Tuesday and Thursday.

- Martin Ouellette made 24 saves to record his first pro shutout on Sunday against South Carolina.

- The Royals are the league's least-penalized team with 11.90 penalty minutes per game.

- Reading hosts Wheeling on Friday and Saturday and visits the Nailers on Sunday.

- Jeff Jakaitis has allowed two goals or less in each of his last five starts.

- South Carolina has scored 26 of its 60 goals in the second period.

- The Stingrays host Cincinnati on Tuesday and Greenville on Saturday before visiting Gwinnett on Sunday.

Central Division

- Chad Costello has 10 points (6g-4a) in the last four games.

- The Americans are 11-1-1 in their last 13 games.

- Allen hosts Quad City on Wednesday and Brampton on Saturday.

- Rob Ricci has six points (2g-4a) in eight games since joining the Beast.

- Brampton is second on the penalty kill at 87.9 percent (51-for-58).

- The Beast are at Missouri on Tuesday, Tulsa on Friday and Allen on Saturday.

- Andrew Courtney has scored a goal in three of the last four games.

- Seven of the Mavericks' nine wins have been by one goal.

- Missouri hosts Brampton on Tuesday and Rapid City on Friday.

- Pearce Eviston scored his first pro goal Friday at Rapid City.

- Each of Quad City's last five games, and 11 of its last 13, have been decided by one goal.

- The Mallards are at Allen on Wednesday, Wichita on Friday and Tulsa on Saturday.

- Daniel Tetrault is third among defensemen with 57 shots on goal.

- The Rush are fourth with 32.75 shots per game.

- Rapid City is at Missouri on Friday and Wichita on Saturday.

- Kevin Carr leads the league in saves (536) and minutes played (1,124).

- Tulsa is fifth with 3.55 goals per game.

- The Oilers host Wichita on Wednesday, Brampton on Friday and Quad City on Saturday.

- Danick Gauthier recorded a natural hat trick on Saturday at Brampton, the first of his pro career.

- The Thunder lead the league with 25.57 shots-against per game.

- Wichita is at Tulsa on Wednesday and hosts Quad City on Friday and Rapid City on Saturday.

Pacific Division

- Brendan Connolly is tied for third in the league with 17 assists.

- Alaska has allowed 16 goals in the third period, tied for the second fewest in the league.

- The Aces are at Utah on Wednesday and Idaho on Friday and Saturday.

- Jonathan Lessard is on a four-game goal streak, including scoring two goals on Saturday at Idaho.

- The Condors have scored at least four goals in each of their last five games.

- Bakersfield visits Ontario on Tuesday, hosts the Reign on Thursday and Utah on Saturday and Sunday.

- Collin Bowman is tied for first among defensemen with six goals.

- Colorado is tied for sixth with 2.78 goals-against per game.

- The Eagles host Stockton on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

- Wade MacLeod leads Idaho with four multi-goal games.

- The Steelheads have allowed a league-low 11 goals in the first period.

- Idaho hosts Alaska on Friday and Saturday.

- Geoff Walker is tied for fifth in the league with three game-winning goals.

- Ontario leads the league with 2.32 goals-against per game.

- The Reign host Bakersfield on Tuesday, visit the Condors on Thursday and host Utah on Friday.

- Peter Sivak is on an eight-game point streak (5g-6a).

- The Thunder went 4-2-1 on their seven-game home stand.

- Stockton is at Colorado on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

- Michael Pelech has at least one point in 16 of the Grizzlies' 21 games.

- Eleven of Utah's last 15 games have been decided by one goal.

- The Grizzlies host Alaska on Wednesday and are at Ontario on Friday and Bakersfield on Saturday and Sunday.

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