AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Dominate Toronto 4-2 at Home

Published on January 12, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Peoria, IL (January 12, 2007) - After a slow start, in which both teams recorded only four shots on goal in the first period, the Peoria Rivermen turned the offense up a couple notches in the second period, notching three goals en route to a 4-2 win over the Toronto Marlies in front of a crowd of 4,257 on Friday night at Carver Arena.

Prior to tonight's tilt, Toronto (15-21-2-3, 35 pts) led the AHL in shots per game, averaging 35.15. Peoria, which is now 14-9-0-0 when outshooting their opponent, was able to hold the Marlies 10 shots below their average. The Rivermen were second in the league in shots allowed coming into the game at 26.26.

After going 0-for-10 on the power play in their previous game, the Rivermen (22-14-1-2, 47 pts) opened the scoring on their first man-advantage opportunity. Center Ryan Ramsay fired a pass from the right point to the bottom of the right face-off circle for left wing Charles Linglet, who quickly found center Konstantin Zakharov just off the left goal post. Zakharov took Linglet's pass and one-timed a rocket shot up under the crossbar past a helpless Marlies goaltender Justin Pogge. It was Zakharov's fifth marker of the year and came at 12:11 of the first frame.

Peoria came out of the intermission firing, registering its second tally just 27 seconds into the second session. From the high slot, left wing Peter Sejna dumped the puck into the left wing corner for center Trent Whitfield, who backhanded a no-look centering pass for right wing Jon DiSalvatore right in front of Pogge, where DiSalvatore chipped it in for his 10th goal of the season.

The Rivermen continued to pepper Pogge with shots, and center Cam Keith notched his third goal of the season and first in 27 games at 9:30 of the middle period. Defenseman Jeff Woywitka launched a shot from the left point as Keith was skating to his left, just above the goal mouth. The shot was slightly behind Keith, so he twisted back to get his stick on the puck to redirect it above Pogge's glove.

The Marlies were able to get on the board at 17:08 of the second period on center Erik Westrum's 15th marker of the 2006-07 campaign. Westrum started at center point and skated around a couple Rivermen defenders to the left face-off dot, where he found an open look and flicked the puck between the legs of Peoria netminder Curtis Sanford.

Peoria regained its three-goal lead just a minute and ten seconds later on left wing Michal Birner's fourth tally of the year. Linglet skated across the slot from left to right and flipped a shot on net that was saved by Pogge. The puck dropped straight down, but Pogge was sliding to the right and could not recover, as Birner skated in from the slot and throw it into the vacated net.

Toronto added a late power play goal at 19:46 of the final frame as center John Mitchell blasted a one-timer from the right face-off dot, between right post and left arm of Sanford for his sixth marker of the year.

Sanford, who was the first star of the contest, recorded his first victory with the Rivermen this season, as he is down in Peoria on a rehabilitation assignment after injuring his groin on December 1 against the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks.

The Rivermen finish their second stretch of four games in five days of the season and second tilt of four straight at Carver Arena when they face-off against the Milwaukee Admirals Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. Tomorrow night's game is OSF-St. Francis Medical Center/Children's Hospital of Illinois T-shirt Night for the first 2,000 fans.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 12, 2007


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