WHEELING, WV – Tyler Murovich scored twice to help lead the Wheeling Nailers to a 4-3 victory over the Greenville Road Warriors in game one of the Eastern Conference Seminfinals at the Bi-lo Center Thursday night . The Nailers lead the best-of-seven series 1-0.
It didn’t take long for the Road Warriors to crack the scoresheet and take an early lead. Brandon Connolly brought the puck into the zone and attempted to throw the puck on goal. However, the puck was delfected off a skate and bounced perfectly to a wide open Shane Harper who lifted the puck into the open net behind goaltender Peter Delmas at 1:16 of the first.
The Nailers responded, scoring the tying goal from Tyler Murovich at 8:33 of the first. Murovich picked up the puck at left wing circle, brought it to the slot and slid a backhand shot through the five-hole of Greenville netminder Chris Beckford-Tseu (pronounced Sue). Nearly two minutes later, Greenville turned the puck over on a pass at center, and Joey Haddad took off with it for a shorthanded breakaway. Haddad broke in on goal, made a deke move to the forehand and slid the puck past Beckfor-Tseu shortside to give Wheeling a 2-1 lead after the first period.
In the second Tim Crowder fed the puck in the slot to Brandon DeFazio who spun around and flipped the puck past Beckford-Tseu to extend the Nailers lead to 3-1 at 6:09 of the second.
Wheeling took the two goal lead into the third period, but a quick strike by Marc-Olivier Vallerand pulled the Road Warriors within one at 4:46 of the third. Wheeling grabbed some cushion, as Tyler Murovich rushed the puck on the right wing side during a delayed penalty, rifled a wrist shot high into the net, to make the score 4-2. The goal was the second for Murovich in the contest.
Greenville refused to go away as Brendan Connollly scored off the rebound of Wes Cunningham shot with eight minutes remaining to once again pull his team within one 4-3. Wheeling buckled down the rest of the way, and received some clutch stops from Delmas to preserve the 4-3 victory. Delmas earns his fourth post season win, stopping 33 of 36 shots, while Beckford-Tseu take his first lost of the postseason allowing four goals on 21 shots.
The two teams meet again tomorrow, for game two at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville at 7:35 p.m.
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