AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen outlast Wolves, 4-3, in OT

February 26, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Peoria, IL (February 26, 2006) - The special-teams units of both the Peoria Rivermen and the Chicago Wolves played prominent roles in the match-up of the two intra-state rivals on Sunday evening at Carver Arena, as the Rivermen prevailed in overtime by a score of 4-3. Of the seven goals that the Peoria and Chicago squads combined to tally in this game, only one came at even strength, a goal at the 19:45 mark of the second period by Wolves defenseman Travis Roche. The other six goals in the tilt were split evenly among the power-play and the shorthanded varieties. While each team notched at least one power-play goal on Sunday evening, the Rivermen scored all three of the contest's shorthanded goals to take an opportunistic overtime win.

The Rivermen opened the scoring in this tilt with a shorthanded goal just over halfway through the first period. As the Wolves looked to break out of their zone on the power play, Peoria right wing Jon DiSalvatore stole the puck in Chicago's right circle. Wheeling around to confront Wolves netminder Michael Garnett, DiSalvatore dented the twine with a top-shelf shot to stake the Rivermen to a 1-0 lead at the 12:42 mark of the initial session on his 16th strike of the year.

Peoria knotted up the contest at 3-3 on the team's second shorthanded score of the evening. As the Wolves brought the puck through the neutral zone on a third-period Chicago power play, Rivermen center Mike Zigomanis poke-checked the puck away from a Wolves skater at the center red line along the right-wing boards. Bursting into the Chicago end ahead of several Wolves pursuers, Zigomanis was able to beat Garnett to the stick side with a shot fired from within the right circle just 1:52 into the third period. The shorthanded marker was the first goal of any kind for Zigomanis as a member of the Rivermen.

The third shorthanded goal of the game by the Rivermen and the evening's second shorthanded tally from Zigomanis proved decisive in overtime. Defenseman Aaron MacKenzie started the winning play for Peoria by poking the puck free as Chicago tried to enter the Rivermen end. Bringing the puck into the Wolves zone along the right wing, MacKenzie then backhanded a pass over to his left to Zigomanis, who ripped a slap shot from within the left circle that zoomed into the upper right portion of the Chicago cage just 43 seconds into the extra session to win the game for Peoria, 4-3, on his eighth goal of the campaign.

As a result of their thrilling overtime victory on Sunday, the Rivermen improve to 32-20-1-4 on the season and to 19-9-0-2 at home in Carver Arena. The Wolves, meanwhile, do earn one point in the standings for their efforts on Sunday evening and leave Peoria with an overall record of 22-25-3-6. On the road, Chicago now stands 11-12-1-6.

Shortly after yielding DiSalvatore's shorthanded goal, the Wolves converted their power-play opportunity. On a quick feed from winger Billy Tibbetts to Chicago centerman Kip Miller above the hash marks in the Rivermen end, Miller buried his 11th goal of the season into a net that Peoria goalie Reinhard Divis left open, presumably because he did not see Tibbetts' quick pass. The goal tied the contest at 1-1 at the 13:02 mark of the first period.

The Wolves took their first lead of the game at 15:51 of the first. As Chicago controlled the puck in the Rivermen zone on a power play, the puck found its' way into the slot and came to left wing Ramzi Abid, who deftly distributed it into the left circle. There, Wolves right wing Pat Dwyer came upon Abid's pass and one-timed a low shot inside the right post of the Peoria goal to give his team a 2-1 lead on his 13th tally of 2005-06.

Defenseman Mike Mottau drew the Rivermen even with the Wolves at 2-2 early on in the middle period. Using a screen in front of the Wolves net, he took a DiSalvatore pass off of the left-wing boards and wired a quick wrist shot from the high slot over Garnett's left shoulder at 5:39 of the second. The power-play marker improved Mottau's season goal total to five.

Chicago gained another one-goal advantage on Peoria, this time at 3-2, just before the second period came to a close. Collecting the puck out near the center point in the Rivermen zone, Wolves defenseman Travis Roche proceeded to stickhandle around one Peoria defender before snapping off a wrist shot from the high slot that found its' way into the upper left corner of the net with just 15 seconds to go before the second intermission. The even-strength goal gave Roche five total goals on the year.

The coming week holds four games in store for the Rivermen, who will start the week off by hosting the Rochester Americans on Wednesday, March 1, at 7:00 p.m. (CST).

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