Rivermen End Four-Game Losing Skid with 3-1 Home Win over Fresno
December 28, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release
Peoria, Ill. (December 28, 2004) â Rivermen rookie forward Jake Riddle decided to score not one but his first two professional goals, as he helped Peoria snap a season-worst, four-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Fresno Falcons in front of 4,059 on Tuesday night at Carver Arena.
Riddle, who had a hand in every goal with three points (2g, 1a), finished the scoring with 2:30 left in regulation. Brian McCullough left a drop pass in the high slot for Riddle, who stepped into it and rifled his second goal of the contest off the shoulder of Fresno goaltender Jamie Hodson into the upper left corner.
His linemate McCullough, a three-time ECHL All-Star, assisted on all three goals for his first three-point night with the Rivermen.
Peoria (8-13-3, 19 points) improved to .500 at home over 12 games (5-5-2) and pushed its lifetime regular season mark against West Division opponents to 6-2-0. Fresno (12-12-2, 26 points) had its three-game winning streak snapped in defeat and dropped to 3-6-0 on the road.
Rivermen netminder Alfie Michaud (3-5-2) turned away 30 of 31 Fresno shots in the victory. Hodson (4-2-0) stopped 31 of 34 chances in the loss.
The Rivermen took a 1-0 on the power play at 6:15 of the opening period. McCullough, who walked to the right-wing corner, fed Riddle along the endboards. Riddle maneuvered the puck to the goal and fed a breaking Trevor Byrne, who jumped down from the left point to the goal post and chipped his first goal into the near upper corner.
Byrne was loaned to the Rivermen by the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate â the Worcester IceCats â earlier in the day. It was Byrne's first point in a Rivermen uniform. Last season, in six games with Peoria, the 24-year-old native of Weymouth, Mass., did not register a point.
There were three fights in the first period. Peoria's Mark Jerant and David Kaczowka both hammered Fresno's Thierry Douville, while Peoria's Joe Pereira battled former Rivermen Michael Kiesman.
Peoria took a 2-0 lead on Riddle's first professional goal, which would prove to be the game winner. Riddle took a pass from McCullough, broke into the Fresno zone down the right wing, cut in underneath Simon Mangos at the bottom of the face-off circle, pulled Hodson out of position and snapped the puck into the open net from just off the left post at 3:56.
The Falcons got on the board on the power play at 6:15 of the middle session. Mangos took a pass from Curtis Sheptak at the top of the left face-off circle in the Peoria zone and whistled a wrist shot through screen past Michaud for his fourth tally of the year.
Tomorrow night â Wednesday, December 29, the Rivermen host the Fresno Falcons again in the second of two in a row between the clubs. Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Carver Arena.
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