AHL Peoria Rivermen

Peoria Loses to Chicago Again

Published on December 11, 2005 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Chicago, IL (December 11, 2005) - On Sunday evening in Chicago, the Peoria Rivermen lost their second game to the Chicago Wolves in three days, dropping a 4-1 decision at Allstate Arena. The Rivermen and the Wolves tangled this past Friday in Chicago as well, with the Wolves prevailing in that tilt by a count of 6-5. Right wing Pat Dwyer starred for Chicago in Sunday's affair, notching a pair of goals on four shots. Jani Hurme backstopped the Wolves to their victory with 21 saves on 22 Peoria shots.

Although he suffered the loss in this contest, Rivermen goaltender Jason Bacashihua performed admirably, turning aside 36 of the 39 shots that he saw from the Wolves to keep his Peoria squad in the game. The 11 shots that Bacashihua saw in the first period turned out to be the fewest that he faced in any one period in this outing. Although one of those first-period shots eluded Bacashihua, his team also scored once in that frame to tie the score at 1-1. The Wolves squeezed off 16 shots on goal in the second period, but Bacashihua stood up to the challenge and saved each one. Bacashihua made another 10 saves in the third period, but two shots found the net behind him, and the Wolves added an empty-net goal to fashion a 4-1 win.

As a result of the loss, Peoria now stands 15-10-0-1 on the season, and the club's road record is now 6-4-0-0. The Wolves, meanwhile, improve to 8-10-1-3 on the season and to 4-5-1-0 at their Allstate Arena home.

The Wolves grabbed an early lead in this tilt, scoring the game's first goal at 6:35 of the first period. Working the puck around on a power play, winger Ramzi Abid got the puck at the right point and sent it down the boards into the right corner to center Kip Miller. Miller then found right wing Pat Dwyer with a pass into the slot, and Dwyer wired a quick shot through the five-hole of Bacashihua.

Just over one minute later, the Rivermen evened the score. After right winger Jon DiSalvatore shot the puck on net, several players from both teams converged around Wolves goaltender Jani Hurme. As the crowd toppled toward the left post, the puck trickled to the right, and DiSalvatore swooped in and poked it into the goal at 7:37 of the first.

This game remained knotted at 1-1 until the early portion of the third period. After extracting the puck out of a crowd along the left-wing boards, Wolves center Kevin Doell pushed the puck to blueliner Brian Sipotz in the high slot. From that position, Sipotz released a shot that stayed low along the ice and went through some traffic in front before it slid right by Bacashihua's right skate blade and inside the left post to give Chicago a 2-1 lead at the 3:11 mark of the third period.

Late in the third period, the Wolves extended their lead. Having entered the Peoria zone on a two-on-one break with Abid, Miller received a nice pass from Abid at the right face-off dot but failed to control it initially. After settling the puck, Miller quickly sent it back to Abid in the slot, and Abid beat Bacashihua with a shot to the stick side. The goal came at 17:55 of the final regulation frame and gave Chicago a 3-1 advantage.

The Wolves secured a victory in this tilt with an empty-net power-play goal with 33 seconds remaining in regulation. Skating deep into the right corner, Chicago winger Colin Stuart one-timed a backhanded pass to Dwyer, who dented the unguarded twine of the Rivermen goal with a shot from the bottom of the right circle at 19:27 that produced the final score of 4-1 in favor of the Wolves.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 11, 2005


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