AHL Peoria Rivermen

Peoria Looks to Gain Ground in West Division Against Omaha

Published on January 9, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Friday, January 13, RIVERMEN @ Omaha; Saturday, January 14, Omaha @ RIVERMEN: This week, the Peoria Rivermen are slated to play a home-and-home series with their West Division rival Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights on Friday and Saturday. The Rivermen and the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights have met three times already this season, and the Rivermen have posted a record of 1-2-0-0 in those tilts. These two squads last faced-off against each other back on Wednesday, December 7, 2005, when the Omaha club skated out of Carver Arena with a 3-2 victory. Following this weekend's two games, the 2005-06 Rivermen-Knights season series will be half-complete, with five games remaining. The first four of those remaining contests will take place at the Omaha Civic Auditorium before the Rivermen-Knights season finale at Carver Arena on Sunday, April 9. The Ak-Sar-Ben Knights serve as the proud primary affiliate of the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). Omaha enters this week's action in third place in the West Division of the American Hockey League's Western Conference with a 16-16-1-7 record and 40 points, just three points ahead of the fifth-place Rivermen. Center Carsen Germyn (17 goals, 14 assists) and defenseman Mark Giordano (9 goals, 22 assists) are currently tied for the team scoring lead with 31 points. Omaha goaltender Curtis McElhinney now owns the fourth-best goals-against average in the AHL at 2.33 to go along with a record of 7-8-1, a save percentage of .917, and two shutouts. On the power play thus far this season, the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights have converted on 16.4 percent of their opportunities to rank 17th among the AHL's 27 clubs. Their ranking on the penalty kill is better, as Omaha presently stands tied for fifth in the League with a penalty-kill percentage of 84.6.

RIVERMEN ACTION LAST WEEK

Friday, January 6, Hamilton 2 vs. RIVERMEN 1 (SO): In their first game in the calendar year of 2006, the Peoria Rivermen fell to the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-1 in a shootout. Left wing Peter Sejna got the Rivermen on the scoreboard first in the tilt with a power-play goal at the 13:00 mark of the first period. The Rivermen held that 1-0 lead until early on in the third period, when center Corey Locke netted a power-play marker for the Bulldogs to knot the game at 1-1 at 3:46 of the third. Because the two teams remained tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation, the game moved to overtime. When neither club scored in overtime, a shootout was employed to determine a winner. Locke, right wing Alexander Perezhogin, and defenseman James Sanford converted each of Hamilton's first three shootout attempts. Only right wing Mike Glumac, however, was able to score for Peoria in the shootout. The Bulldogs, therefore, won the shootout 3-1 to claim a 2-1 shootout victory. Rivermen goaltender Patrick Lalime absorbed the shootout loss after making 39 saves on 40 shots faced. The Bulldogs out-shot the Rivermen by a count of 41-37. The Rivermen went one for six on the power play, while the Bulldogs went one for eight with the man-advantage.

Saturday, January 7, Cleveland 5 vs. RIVERMEN 2: About 17.5 hours after the start of their game in Hamilton last Friday evening, the Rivermen took the ice on Saturday in Cleveland for a matinee match-up with the Cleveland Barons. The Rivermen and the Barons traded power-play goals in the first period of this tilt, as left wing Peter Sejna tallied for Peoria and right wing Steve Bernier scored for Cleveland. In the middle frame, each squad lit the lamp once at even strength, with the Barons' goal coming off of the stick of center Josh Hennessy, and center Trent Whitfield tying the game at 2-2 for the Rivermen. The third period was the difference in this contest, as the Barons reeled off three unanswered goals during the frame. At the 2:34 mark of the third, Bernier struck for the second time on the afternoon, followed by center Tomas Plihal's goal at 6:42. Hennessy then put his second goal of the game into an empty Peoria net at 19:35 to produce the final score of 5-2 in favor of Cleveland. Reinhard Divis tended Peoria's crease in this afternoon affair and turned aside 38 shots in the loss. Although the Rivermen fired 34 shots at Barons netminder Dimitri Patzold, the Barons squeezed off a total of 43 shots on goal. Peoria went one for five on the power play, compared to Cleveland's three-for-seven effort with the man-advantage.

ROAD WOES

Including their shootout loss last Friday in Hamilton and their loss last Saturday in Cleveland, the Rivermen are now winless in their last nine road games (0-7-1-1). Over the team's last 10 games away from Carver Arena, the Rivermen have posted a record of 1-7-1-1.

SHOOTING DISPARITY

The Rivermen were out-shot by their opponent in both of the squad's games last week. Peoria has now been out-shot on 10 occasions so far this season, and the Rivermen own a record of 3-4-1-2 in those games.

RIVERMEN SO-SO IN SHOOTOUTS

Peoria's shootout loss last Friday in Hamilton was the fourth shootout the Rivermen have been involved in so far this season. The Rivermen are 2-2 in those four shootout tournaments.

IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED!

Last Friday night in Hamilton, Rivermen center Trent Whitfield's point-scoring streak ended at 14 games. During the scoring binge, Whitfield registered a total of 21 points (9 goals, 12 assists). He got back in the act on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland, though, setting up Peoria's first goal and then scoring the only other Rivermen goal of the game. Whitfield now ranks fourth on the Rivermen in total points with 27 (10 goals, 17 assists) in only 25 games played.

WELCOME BACK, PETER!

Left wing Peter Sejna has made his presence known since returning to the Rivermen on loan from the St. Louis Blues of the NHL on Wednesday, January 4. In his first game back with the Rivermen, Sejna scored the lone goal in Peoria's 2-1 shootout loss last Friday night at Hamilton. He then tallied another goal the next afternoon in Cleveland. Sejna is now tied for seventh place in the AHL scoring race with 41 points on 17 goals and 24 assists in his 31 games played. He also ranks first in the League in power-play goals with 13, second overall in shots on goal with 142, and tied for third with 26 power-play points.

PEORIA'S ONE-TWO SCORING PUNCH

Wingers Mike Glumac and Peter Sejna give the Rivermen quite a one-two scoring punch. With 41 points each, they lead the team in scoring and are tied for seventh place in the AHL. Glumac has scored his 41 points on 19 goals and 22 assists in 35 tilts, while Sejna has put up 17 goals and 24 assists in 31 outings.

PEORIA POWER-PLAY UNIT CONTINUES TO PRODUCE

Although the Rivermen failed to pick up a win in two games last week, the club did extend its streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal. The Rivermen have now registered at least one goal on the power play in each of the last nine games. Going back further than that, they have scored at least one power-play goal in 16 of their previous 17 outings. The Rivermen enter this week's action with the third-best power-play conversion rate in the AHL at 21.8 percent.

MONTHLY RIVERMEN RECORDS

Peoria's monthly records through the first three months of the 2005-06 season are as follows:

October: 10 games played, 8-2-0-0, 16 points, .800

November: 9 games played, 4-4-0-1, 9 points, .500

December: 14 games played, 5-8-1-0, 11 points, .393

PEORIA'S BLUELINE POINT-GETTER

Mike Mottau leads all Rivermen defensemen with 24 points (2 goals, 22 assists) in 33 games played. Among all AHL blueliners, that point total ties him for ninth place.

RAGING RIVERMEN

C Trent Whitfield has recorded 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) over the course of his last 16 games played...RW Jon DiSalvatore has collected 16 points (4 goals, 12 assists) over the previous 14 games...RW Mike Glumac has notched 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) in the last 16 tilts...C Troy Riddle has produced 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in his previous 11 contests...D Mike Mottau has dished out at least one assist in 10 of his last 14 outings (1 goal, 12 assists)...C Blake Evans has scored one goal in four of the last nine games...RW Lee Stempniak collected two assists on 12-31 vs. HAM.

RECENT RIVERMEN TRANSACTIONS

January 4, 2006 F Cam Keith returned to ECHL Alaska on loan from AHL Peoria.

January 4, 2006 LW Peter Sejna returned to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) on loan from the St. Louis Blues (NHL).

January 3, 2006 G Chris Beckford-Tseu reassigned by NHL St. Louis from AHL Peoria to ECHL Alaska.

January 3, 2006 D Doug Lynch reassigned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) from Team Canada (IIHF) to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL).

December 29, 2005 G Reinhard Divis returned to AHL Peoria on loan from NHL St. Louis.

December 29, 2005 F Cam Keith recalled from the Alaska Aces of the ECHL.

December 28, 2005 C Ryan Ramsay reassigned by NHL St. Louis from AHL Peoria to ECHL Alaska.

December 28, 2005 LW Charles Linglet recalled by the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) from the Las Vegas Wranglers (ECHL).

December 28, 2005 LW Peter Sejna recalled by the St. Louis Blues (NHL).

December 28, 2005 RW Lee Stempniak returned on loan to AHL Peoria by NHL St. Louis.

RIVERMEN ACTION THIS WEEK

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13

PEORIA RIVERMEN @ Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights

7:00 p.m., Omaha Civic Auditorium

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14

Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights @ PEORIA RIVERMEN

8:00 p.m., Carver Arena

Radio: All Rivermen games are broadcast LIVE on HOPE 98.5 (WPIA-FM), the flagship radio station of the Peoria Rivermen.

Internet Audio: LIVE streaming audio of all Rivermen games is available for no charge at www.rivermen.net.

Internet Video: LIVE streaming video with the accompanying audio feed is available at www.rivermen.net through the facilities of the b2 networks. The video Webcast of each game is available for a pay-per-view fee of $6.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from January 9, 2006


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