SPHL Peoria Rivermen

Late Flurry Helps Rivermen Weather Storm Saturday

Published on January 19, 2019 under SPHL (SPHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


PEORIA, IL - The Peoria Rivermen scored three goals in a 5-minute, 48-second third period span to break a 2-2 tie en route to a 5-2 win over the Quad City Storm at Carver Arena Saturday. The win, Peoria's seventh in a row, lifts the Rivermen to 24-3-3 on the season before next weekend's trio of games at Pensacola.

Quad City jumped to an early advantage at 5:40 of the first period when Storm center Tommy Tsicos found the puck between the circles of the Rivermen zone and fired it past the stick of Rivermen netminder Storm Phaneuf.

The Rivermen took the first power play of the game and capitalized to draw even at the 12:29 mark. Peoria winger Pijus Rulevicius took a Dean Yakura pass from the right side of the goal and put it past Storm netminder Peter Di Salvo for the 1-1 score.

Rulevicius scored his second power-play goal of the night at the 18:37 mark of the first frame when he deflected a Justin Greenberg shot from the right-wing circle of the Quad City zone.

The Storm leveled the game early in the second period, when Quad City center Michael Casale took a carom off the end boards of the Peoria zone and popped it past Phaneuf for a 2-2 tie two minutes into the period.

The game remained tied until the floodgates opened for Peoria midway through the final frame. Rivermen winger Ben Blasko hustled to the right point of the Storm zone to hold in a loose puck, and sent a pass to the left circle, where teammate Joe Kalisz rifled a one-timer past Di Salvo for the eventual game-winner and a 3-2 lead at 10:44 of the final period.

The Rivermen added a pair of insurance goals late in the period, just 66 seconds apart. Jake Hamilton's point wrister eluded Di Salvo at 15:26 before Peoria captain Alec Hagaman tallied his 11th goal of the season at 16:32 for the eventual 5-2 final.

Phaneuf earned the win in net, turning aside 17 of 19 shots faced to improve to 7-0-1 on the season. The win is Phaneuf's first since returning from an ECHL stint with Brampton and Kalamazoo, and his first overall win since December 22, 2018 at Quad City.

Notes: Kalisz extended his career-high point streak to 10 games with his third-period goal...Blasko notched a career-high with three assists, and leads all SPHL rookies this season...Greenberg notched two assists in the game and has nine points in his last five outings...The Rivermen return to action Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on the road against the Pensacola Ice Flyers...Friday's contest will begin at 7:35 Central Time, and the broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 7:15 at http://mixlr.com/peoria-rivermen/

Group, single game, and season tickets for Peoria's 37th season of professional hockey presented by Midwest Orthopaedic Center are on sale at the Toyota Box Office in the Peoria Civic Center, or by phone at the Rivermen office, located at 201 S.W. Jefferson Street, or over the phone at (309) 676-1040.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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