Peoria Rivermen alumni returned to Carver Arena Saturday afternoon to reminisce, renew old friendships, play hockey and celebrate 30 years of professional hockey in Peoria, IL. The teams were evenly matched as the final score showed. The white team coached by former owner Anne Griffith defeated the blue team 11-10 coached by Bob Plager and Mark Olson. 2012 Hall-of-Fame inductee Jean-Guy Trudel and Bo Cheesman scored 4 goals each for the winning team, while Joe Rybar and Randy Skarda scored two goals each in a loosing effort for team Plager. Click here to view photo’s to purchase.
-Bob
The Peoria Rivermen scored three power-play goals en route to a 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals Sunday night at Carver Arena before 4,114 fans. T.J. Hensick, Brett Sterling and Danny Syvret all registered multipoint games to lead the Rivermen to their fourth win in their past five games. The Rivermen scored three times in the first 20 minutes to chase goaltender Atte Engren from the net and then relied on 33 saves from Jake Allen the rest of the way. Allen stopped 33 of the 35 shots he faced to grab his third win of the year while the Rivermen went 3-for-6 on the power play in the game. Click here for the official game stats.
-Bob
Mike Duco earned a hat trick and Eddie Lack made 30 saves as the Chicago Wolves beat the Peoria Rivermen 5-2 on Friday night at Carver Arena before 4,931 fans. Brett Sonne and Stefan Della Rovere scored Peoria’s two goals as they saw their three-game winning streak, and four-game point streak, come to an end. The Rivermen are now 17-16-2-1 and are currently in fourth place in the Midwest Division, just one point back of the Wolves. Duco scored at the 11:50 mark of the second period to build Chicago a 2-0 lead and start s string of three goals over the next 2:48. The Rivermen cut the lead in half 15 seconds later as Della Rovere ripped a turnaround shot over Eddie Lack’s glove for his third of the season. Byron Bitz scored for Chicago at 13:38 to restore the Wolves’ two-goal lead. The hat trick from Duco came on an empty-netter with 1:11 to play. Click here for the official stats.
-Bob
In a New Year’s Eve contest dominated by penalties, the Peoria Rivermen topped the Rockford IceHogs 3-2 in front on 6,226 fans at Carver Arena on Saturday. Phil McRae netted the game winner midway through the third period while the teams combined for 102 penalty minutes. Peoria opened the scoring with its second shorthanded goal of the year at the 7:40 mark of the first period. After Adam Cracknell was boxed for hooking, Cade Fairchild and Brett Sonne raced two-on-one down the ice and into the Rockford zone. From the top of the right circle, Fairchild fed Sonne who pulled the puck to the backhand and pushed a shot around IceHogs goaltender Alec Richards. At the 6:47 mark, the tempers began to flare once again as Brennan Evans and Andrew Shaw dropped the gloves in the Rivermen zone. Towards the end of their tilt, Jeremy Morin stepped in and grabbed ahold of Evans, drawing almost everyone else on the ice into the scuffle. Morin was given a game misconduct for being the third man into the altercation. Click for the official box score.
-Bob
The Peoria Rivermen overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period on Monday, but fell to the Chicago Wolves in overtime, 4-3 at Carver Arena before 5,036 hearty fans. Chicago’s Jordan Schroeder notched the game winner with under a minute to go in the extra frame as Peoria fell to 14-15-2-1 on the season. Peoria began to creep back into the game midway through the third period as Derek Nesbitt notched his 11th of the year. At 9:46, Nesbitt set up and sent a slap shot from between the circles into the back of the net. Less than two minutes later, Tyler Shattock drew the game back even with his fourth goal of the year. At the 11:39 mark, Brett Sonne sent the puck ahead to Shattock who wristed a shot off of the crossbar and into the net. Both teams took a 3-3 tie into overtime, but Jordan Schroeder ended the contest with less than a minute to go in the extra frame. From the right boards, Bill Sweatt made a powerful move to the net and Ben Bishop made the initial stop, but the rebound once again popped to the top of the crease. Schroeder knocked it home to give Chicago the win at the 4:13 mark.
-Bob
