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Peoria Rivermen

1st Period Explosion Propels Rivermen to Win

November 21, 2014 - SPHL (SPHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Peoria Rivermen exploded for five first-period goals on the way to their largest offensive output of the season in a 9-3 victory over the Knoxville Ice Bears on Friday night at Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

The Rivermen tallied first with a power play goal by Ben Oskroba on a rebound with 12:54 left in the opening period assisted by Garrett Vermeesch and Nick Wheeler. The Rivs increased the lead to 2-0 just 1:04 later when Josh Harris weaved to the slot and buried a top-shelf wrister assisted by Tyler Amburgey. Dennis Sicard slapped in a loose puck from his knees at the doorstep 1:14 after the Harris goal with helpers from Amburgey and Alex Hudson, giving the Rivermen three goals in 2:18 for a 3-0 advantage before the halfway point of the first period.

Hudson built the lead to 4-0 with 4:15 before the first intermission by hustling a loose puck along the right boards from center ice and sweeping to the slot with a backhand drive on assists from Sicard and Nick Schneider. Harris collected his second goal of the game with just over a minute left in the opening chapter by redirecting a give-and-go feed from Dan Bremner at the top of the crease, also assisted by Jake Trask, to give Peoria a 5-0 lead heading into the dressing room for the first time.

After a Nick Wheeler goal to put Peoria ahead 6-0 early in the middle chapter, the Ice Bears finally dented the scoreboard on a Francis Drolet lamp-lighter with 12:44 left in the second period, assisted by Ryan Salvis and Brad Pawlowski, to cut the Rivermen lead to 6-1. Ben Power hit a back-door feed into an open net just 1:38 later to cut the deficit to 6-2. Drolet converted a lucky bounce off a deflected pass with a blast at the right post on a 5-on-3 power play with 7:06 left in the middle stanza to slice the Peoria lead to 6-3 going into the second intermission.

The Rivermen extended the lead back to 7-3 with 15:21 remaining when Alec Hagaman scored his first professional goal completing a 2-on-1 break with Dan Bremner. Trask built the Peoria lead to 8-3 with 12:35 left when Harris forced a turnover behind the Ice Bears net and delivered a feed to the top of the crease. Mike McCann finished the scoring with 1:42 left by sliding the puck inside the left post on assists from Hudson and Oskroba.

Kyle Rank earned the win with 20 saves while Braely Torris took the loss with 22 stops. On power plays, the Rivermen were 1-for-7 while the Ice Bears were 1-for-6.

The Rivermen improve to 7-2-1 with 15 points and remain in first place in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The Ice Bears fall to 6-3-0 with their first home loss.

The Rivermen conclude their three-game road trip with their only visit of the season to Columbus, Ga. to face the Cottonmouths. Face-off is 6:30 p.m. Central with pre-game on SPHLLive.com and www.rivermen.net at 6:15. The Rivermen return home next weekend for Friday and Saturday contests against the defending champion Pensacola Ice Flyers. Black Friday half-price ticket specials are in place from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. that day for the game.

Single game tickets for Peoria's 33rd season of professional hockey are on sale weekdays at the Peoria Civic Center. Season ticket packages and group ticket options for the 2014-15 campaign are on sale now through the Rivermen office, located at 201 S.W. Jefferson Street, or over the phone at (309) 676-1040. For the latest Rivermen news and notes, follow online at www.rivermen.net or through Facebook ( www.facebook.com/PeoriaRivermen) and Twitter ( https://twitter.com/Peoria_Rivermen).

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