AHL Peoria Rivermen

Loss in Houston Ends Peoria's Four-game Winning Streak

January 21, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Houston, TX - Entering Saturday evening's contest with the Houston Aeros at the Toyota Center, the Peoria Rivermen were riding high on a four-game winning streak. It all came crashing down for the Rivermen on the Texas Gulf Coast, though, as the Aeros brought Peoria's winning streak to a screeching halt with a lopsided 5-1 triumph.

The most recent Rivermen winning streak began back on Friday, January 13, with a 4-1 road win against the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. The next evening in Peoria, the Rivermen completed a sweep of their home-and-home series with Omaha by outscoring the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights 2-1. This past Tuesday, the Rivermen opened a two-game series with the San Antonio Rampage by taking a tightly contested 4-3 shootout victory at the AT&T Center. Peoria then claimed another win over the Rampage on Friday night to extend the Rivermen winning streak to four games as the team headed for Houston to play the Aeros on Saturday.

Their 5-1 loss at Houston drops the Rivermen to 21-16-1-2 overall and to 9-10-1-1 on the road. The Aeros, meanwhile, now stand 31-10-1-1 overall and 20-4-1-1 at home.

The Aeros flew out to the first lead in this game in the first period. During a Houston power-play, defenseman Curtis Murphy sent a shot-pass from the center point in the Peoria zone toward the left corner. Cutting in towards the Rivermen goal from the left circle, left winger Roman Voloshenko deflected the puck behind Peoria netminder Patrick Lalime from just above the crease to stake the Aeros to a 1-0 lead on his 22nd goal of the campaign at 12:18 of the first.

Houston took control of the game in the second period. Accepting a feed out of the right corner of the Peoria zone from right wing Kirby Law, Aeros blueliner Clayton Stoner took the puck at the center point and walked into the slot. After both a Rivermen defender and Lalime went down, Stoner snapped a shot into the upper right corner of the goal for a 2-0 Houston advantage at the 5:19 mark of the middle frame.

On a two-on-one Houston break into the Peoria zone involving Law and Voloshenko, Law carried the puck in on left wing and then fed it to the right across to Voloshenko. Settling the pass, Voloshenko walked down the slot with the puck and calmly wired a shot from the bottom of the right circle into the net just above Lalime's left shoulder. Voloshenko's second goal of the game came at 8:04 of the second period to give Houston a 3-0 lead.

The Aeros went up 4-0 thanks to a Rivermen turnover at their blueline. Collecting the loose puck, Houston's Erik Reitz sprung center Patrick O'Sullivan into the Peoria zone with a nice pass behind the Rivermen defense. In alone on Lalime, O'Sullivan fired the puck right above the goalie's right leg pad and just below his blocker to light the lamp at the 14:17 mark of the middle frame. O'Sullivan's 22nd goal of the season prompted Peoria to replace Lalime with Reinhard Divis between the pipes.

The Rivermen finally got on the scoreboard 15:55 into the second period. Driving with the puck to the Aeros goal from down the left-wing boards, winger Troy Riddle was thwarted at the left post by Houston goaltender Miroslav Kopriva, who then immediately stopped a second attempt by center Trent Whitfield. Forward Lee Stempniak, however, was able to put the puck in the net for Peoria by buzzing in off of the right wing to bury a rebound to make the score 4-1 in favor of Houston.

Houston tacked on yet another tally to its lead late in the second period. Off of a neutral-zone turnover, Voloshenko fed the puck to center Erik Westrum, who skated it down the right wing in the Peoria zone. Reaching the goalline, Westrum threw a backhanded pass back to Law, who fired the puck into the Rivermen goal from just below the left circle before Divis could get back across the crease. Law's 27th goal of 2005-06 concluded the scoring in this game at 19:21 of the second and gave the Aeros a 5-1 advantage.

The Rivermen will now return home to host the Manchester Monarchs at Carver Arena on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. (CST).

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American Hockey League Stories from January 21, 2006


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