Rivermen hold on against San Antonio 3-2 at home
April 11, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release
Peoria wins its 25th at home this year and has won three in a row
Peoria, IL (April 11, 2006) - With the 2006 Calder Cup playoffs only a week away, the Peoria Rivermen failed to perform up to expectations against the last team in the American Hockey League (AHL), holding on for a 3-2 win over the San Antonio Rampage before a crowd of 3,488 on Tuesday night at Carver Arena.
The Rivermen (46-25-3-4, 99 points) are within one point of 100 in their first AHL season and improved to 25-12-0-2 at home this year. The Rampage (22-48-3-4, 51 points) is winless in its last three games (0-2-1-0) and drop to 9-26-1-3 on the road.
Peoria, which owns the second-best, power-play unit in the AHL with a 20.53 percent conversion, had six power plays in the first period and nothing to show for it against the League's 16th-ranked, penalty-killing unit. On the night, the Rivermen were 0-for-7 with man advantage.
Ironically enough, the Rivermen got on the scoreboard at even strength early in the first period on the first of two goals in the middle stanza off the stick of center Mike Zigomanis.
Rookie right wing David Backes and left wing Peter Sejna set up the first tally on a cycling play off the left-wing boards. Sejna, stationed at the far-side hash marks along the wall, spun and snapped a pass to the right goal post, where Zigomanis was waiting with his stick on the ice for the easy tap-in. It was his 15th marker of the season.
Peoria pushed its lead to 2-0 with 3:09 remaining in the second on a steal just outside of the San Antonio zone. Backes, who stripped a Rampage defender, raced down the left side of the San Antonio and found Zigomanis in the exact same place he scored his first goal. It was his 16th tally of the year and fifth in the last three games.
The Rivermen thought they had put the game out of reach on Gavin Morgan's career-high 18th goal at 11:56 of the third period. Morgan took a feed from defenseman Tomas Mojzis, skated to the left hash marks and forced a shot under Sterling's left pad.
San Antonio made it interesting in the last six minutes of the game with two goals, the first of which came on the power play from center Jeff Taffe at 14:08. Taffe collected a loose puck just off the right goal post and tapped it in between Beckford-Tseu's pad the post. It was Taffe's 11th goal of the year.
The Rampage got within one with 1:22 left in regulation, making it 3-2, when defenseman Joe Callahan took a pass from center Yanick Lehoux. This was Callahan's first goal of the season and fifth of his career.
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