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Peoria Rivermen

Barons beat Rivermen, 5-2

January 7, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Cleveland, OH (January 7, 2006) - In Saturday afternoon's matinee affair at Quicken Loans Arena between the Peoria Rivermen and the Cleveland Barons, one team went three for seven on the power play, and the other squad went one for five with the man-advantage. Given that the Rivermen entered the game tied for second position in the American Hockey League's power-play rankings with a conversion rate of 21.8 percent and that the Barons stood 19th in the League in that category with a power-play efficiency rate of 14.7 percent, one would guess that Peoria would be the team to have struck for three power-play goals in this tilt. That was not the case, however, for Cleveland was the team that converted three of seven power-play chances on Saturday afternoon, and the Barons used those three man-advantage markers to deal the Rivermen a 5-2 loss.

Cleveland's first power-play goal in this contest came late in the first frame and drew the Barons even with the Rivermen at 1-1. Cleveland left wing Patrick Rissmiller started the play with a shot from the low slot into a pack of players in front of the Peoria goal. When the puck failed to make it through the crowd in front, Rissmiller and two other Barons kept banging at it near the top of the crease, and right wing Steve Bernier finally poked the puck by Rivermen netminder Reinhard Divis at the 19:36 mark of the first.

Early in the third period, Bernier scored once again with the man-advantage. As the Barons worked the puck around the Peoria zone, Rissmiller found Bernier near the right face-off dot with a rink-wide pass from the edge of the left circle. First hesitating as if to make a pass, Bernier then sent a wrist shot by the left shoulder of Divis to give the Barons a 3-2 lead 2:34 into the third period.

The Barons took advantage of another power-play chance to extend their lead to 4-2. Stationed at the top of the crease in front of Divis, both Rissmiller and center Tomas Plihal got his stick on a shot from the right point in the Peoria zone by Cleveland defenseman Garrett Stafford. Plihal received credit for the power-play goal that was tipped in at 6:42 of the third frame.

The loss drops the Rivermen to an overall record of 17-15-1-2. Away from their Carver Arena home, the Rivermen are now 6-9-1-1. The Barons' overall record now stands at 17-22-1-1, and the club now owns an 11-10-1-0 road mark.

As he did on Friday night in Hamilton, left winger Peter Sejna netted the first goal of the game for the Rivermen on Saturday in Cleveland. Once again as well, the goal came during a first-period power play. After center Trent Whitfield took a shot from within the right circle in the Cleveland zone, Barons goalie Dimitri Patzold blocked the shot but left a rebound that scooted toward the left circle. It found its way to Sejna, who put it in the back of the Cleveland goal to the right of Patzold for a 1-0 Peoria lead at 7:08 of the first period.

The Barons took a 2-1 lead on the Rivermen in the middle period. From behind the goal line, to the left of the Peoria goal, Bernier found Plihal with a pass to the bottom of the left circle. Although Plihal fired a shot on net that was saved by Divis, a rebound came to forward Josh Hennessy through a crowd in front, and Hennessy slipped the puck back through the crowd along the ice and by Divis to score at 9:22 of the second.

The Rivermen tied the game at 2-2 less than one minute later. Taking a pass off of the left-wing boards in the Cleveland zone from Peoria defenseman Jeff Woywitka, Whitfield received the puck near the top left corner of the crease to the right of Patzold. Whitfield then wheeled and carried the puck across the top of the crease, waiting for Patzold to make a move. Once Patzold went down to block a shot, Whitfield tucked the puck around him and inside the right post at the 10:11 mark of the second period.

The Barons finished off the scoring in this tilt with an empty-net goal. After Stafford intercepted a Rivermen pass in the neutral zone and poked the puck into the Peoria end, Hennessy beat Sejna to the puck at the left-wing boards, skated in alone, and deposited the puck in the Rivermen goal to produce the final score of 5-2 in favor of Cleveland at 19:35 of the third period.

The Rivermen are scheduled to next take on the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights in a home-and-home series this coming Friday and Saturday. The series will open at Omaha on Friday before moving to Peoria on Saturday.

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