AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen beat Barons, 4-1

Published on March 12, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Peoria, IL (March 12, 2006) - On the heels of a four-game road-trip and just prior to another three-game road swing, the Peoria Rivermen returned home to Carver Arena at the Peoria Civic Center just long enough to play host to the Cleveland Barons on Sunday evening. Making the most of their quick stop at home, the Rivermen generated a good amount of offense and played some quality defense to defeat the Barons by a count of 4-1. Key for Peoria on offense on Sunday night were forwards Cam Keith, Reed Low, and Gavin Morgan, who each registered one goal and one assist. At the other end of the ice, Peoria's Reinhard Divis turned in a stellar effort in goal and nearly came away with his third shutout of the season.

Over the course of Sunday evening's tilt, Divis made a total of 34 saves to record his 16th victory of the season. The Barons came out gunning at Divis from the beginning of the game, squeezing off 17 shots at him in the opening period. When Divis withstood all of their first-period assaults, the Barons returned in the middle frame to test him again with 11 more shots on goal. But again, Divis stopped each one and did not allow a goal. Although Cleveland mustered only seven shots at Divis in the third period, the Barons were finally able to get one of them past the Rivermen goalie to ruin his shutout bid.

Down 4-0 to the Rivermen after 59 minutes of play on Sunday evening, the Barons scored in the final minute of regulation to prevent Divis from recording his third shutout of the year. Skating into the Peoria zone on a two-on-one break with right wing Riley Armstrong, Cleveland defenseman Matt Carkner carried the puck into the right circle and then dished it off to his left to Armstrong. With a flick of his wrists, Armstrong one-timed Carkner's pass into an open net that Divis could not get back across the goalmouth to cover. Armstrong's third goal of the season with just 18 seconds to go in the game perhaps gave the Barons a more palatable final score of 4-1 in favor of the Rivermen.

Peoria's 4-1 win on Sunday evening pushes the club's overall mark to 37-22-2-4, and the Rivermen are presently 21-11-0-2 at home. The Barons, by comparison, drop to 23-41-2-2 on the season and to 10-22-1-1 on the road.

The Rivermen opened the scoring in this contest on a breakaway. Collecting an outlet pass from within the Peoria end from fellow Rivermen winger Reed Low, Jon DiSalvatore took the puck at center ice and skated in alone on Barons goaltender Dimitri Patzold. When he reached the slot, DiSalvatore wristed the puck right through the goalie's five-hole for a 1-0 Peoria lead at the 11:58 mark of the opening frame and his 18th goal of the season.

After setting up Peoria's first goal, Low did the honors on the team's second strike of the evening. Taking a nice pass off of the end boards to the left of the Cleveland cage, Low settled the puck in the high slot area and then unleashed a sweeping shot that zipped over Patzold's blocker and found the upper left portion of the net. The goal at 10:11 of the second period gave the Rivermen a 2-0 lead and Low his second tally of the year.

The Rivermen then went up 3-0 on an amazing goal by forward Cam Keith. As Keith entered the Barons end on the right wing and with the puck during a Cleveland power play, a defender approached him. At the top of the right circle, Keith flipped the puck up over the Barons player, quickly stepped around him to get to the puck at the right hash marks, and then caught it on a short-hop with his stick and swatted it past Patzold at the 14:34 mark of the middle session for his fifth tally of the year.

Following Keith's shorthanded goal, the Rivermen got a power-play marker to extend their lead to 4-0. Accepting a nice lead-pass from the left-wing boards from defenseman Jeff Woywitka, Peoria center Gavin Morgan skated in alone on Patzold, who laid down flat on the ice to block Morgan's shot. Although Patzold thwarted Morgan on his first attempt, the puck came loose, and Morgan banged it in at the right post for his 12th goal of the season at 18:19 of the second.

Following their home game on Sunday evening, the Rivermen now head back out on the road for three games this week at Rochester on Wednesday, at Manchester on Friday, and at Syracuse on Saturday.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from March 12, 2006


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