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ECHL Greenville Swamp Rabbits

Road Warriors Win over Hearts in 6-3 Victory

February 14, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Greenville Swamp Rabbits News Release


Greenville, SC - Ryan Hegarty scored a career-high two goals and Vinny Saponari earned three points (1g, 2a) on Saturday as the Greenville Road Warriors (27-19-3), proud ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers and the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, celebrated Valentine's Day with a 6-3 win over the Evansville IceMen at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

The victory improved Greenville to 15-9-0 on SANDLAPPER Securities Rink and 2-2-0 against the IceMen this season. In addition, the Road Warriors scored three times on the power play for the first time this year.

For the second consecutive day, the Road Warriors opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period to take command early. With Jordan Sims in the box for boarding, Michael St. Croix turned and fed a backhand pass to Sean Escobedo at the high slot for a one-timer that sailed through traffic and past goaltender Chris Driedger at 9:42. St. Croix and Saponari earned the helpers.

Greenville extended its lead with another power-play tally in the closing seconds of the opening frame courtesy of Saponari. Just nine seconds after a 5-on-3 advantage ended and Peter Sakaris remained in the box serving a bench minor, Saponari collected the puck at the side of the blue paint and slipped a backhand shot through Dridger's wickets with less than 20 seconds left. Escobedo and Kyle Jean notched the assists on Saponari's third goal in the last two days.

The IceMen stormed back in the second period and evened the game on goals from Troy Rutkowski and Phil Bushbacher. Rutkowski made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at the 12:38 mark when he fired a blast from the blue line that sailed past goaltender Braely Torris. Bushbacher stunned the Road Warriors later on when he knotted the game at 2-2 with just 2.7 seconds remaining. Mark Anthoine started the attack from the left side and sent the puck to Bushbacher in front, who skated post-to-post and tucked a low shot around the left toe of Torris for his first goal of the season.

Despite Evansville's second-period comeback, the Road Warriors caught fire in the final frame and scored four times to pull away for good. Paul Rodrigues put Greenville on top 3-2 when he tipped Mike Banwell's shot from the left point at the 3:24 mark, assisted by Banwell and Jordan Ciccarello. Less than a minute later, Chris McCarthy corralled the puck in the neutral zone and developed a 2-on-1 attack in transition. From the left wing, McCarthy gained the zone and slipped a saucer pass across to Hegarty for a one-timer past Driedger's glove at 4:13. It was Hegarty's sixth goal of the season.

Hegarty notched his second goal of the game at 8:31 of the third period with Greenville's third power-play tally of the contest. During a 4-on-3 advantage, Hegarty and Jean traded places at the top of the slot before Jean fed Hegarty for another one-time blast that found the back of the net.

Spencer Humphries added the final goal at 19:17 of the third period with an empty netter. Evansville's only tally of the third came at 14:32 when Rutkowski notched his second goal of the contest.

The Road Warriors finished the game 3-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Torris (2-0-0) made 33 saves and earned his second ECHL victory. Driedger (8-24-2) stopped 30 shots in the loss.

The shots were even 36-36.

Follow: Keep up with the Road Warriors all season long and interact with other fans on the Official Road Warriors Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest and Instagram pages.

The Road Warriors conclude their three-game weekend series tomorrow and open a seven-game road trip with a 2:05 p.m. puck drop against the Gwinnett Gladiators in Duluth, Georgia. Go to ECHL.TV to listen for free or watch the games live.

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