ECHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Power Past Johnstown 5-2 at Home

Published on December 12, 2003 under ECHL (ECHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Peoria, Ill. (December 12, 2003) – After tying the game just 17 seconds into the second period, the Peoria Rivermen never looked back, powering their way past the rival Johnstown Chiefs 5-2 before a Friday night crowd of 4,214 at Carver Arena.

Peoria pushed its advantage to 4-2 at 7:03 of the third. Defenseman Brett Scheffelmaier, on reassignment to the Rivermen from the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate – the Worcester IceCats – for conditioning, took a pass from Rennette at the right point and rocketed a shot just under the crossbar for his first professional goal.

The Rivermen sealed the victory with an empty net goal with 14 seconds remaining in the game. Igor Valeev took a pass from Randy Rowe, stickhandled into the Johnstown zone, backing in a Chiefs defender before sliding the puck home from the slot. It was Valeev's first goal of the year.

Rowe led all scorers with three points (1g, 2a), including his team-leading 13th tally of the season.

Peoria (11-6-5, 27 points) took sole possession of fifth place in the Northern Division with the victory. For just the second time this season, the Rivermen tallied five or more goals on home ice; Peoria beat Wheeling 7-0 on October 24. The Rivermen improved to 5-4-2 at home and to 10-4-5 against the Northern Division. Johnstown (14-7-2, 30 points) has lost two straight and is winless in its last three games (0-2-1). The Chiefs dropped to 4-5-1 on the road.

Peoria's Mike Valley turned away 22 of 24 shots for his seventh win of the season (7-1-3). Johnstown's Cory Campbell stopped 14 of 18 in his first loss of the season (5-1-1).

The Chiefs opened the scoring on the power play at 10:41 of the first period. Veteran defenseman Brent Bilodeau fired a low wrist shot from the center point that made its way untouched through a maze of players and through the legs of Valley, who never saw the shot.

The Rivermen tied it 1-1 just 17 seconds into the second; it was the fastest goal to start a period for Peoria this season.

With the teams skating 4-on-4, Bilodeau fanned on a clearing attempt in the high slot in the Johnstown zone, and Adam Edinger took the puck, maneuvered in alone on Johnstown goal and beat Campbell with a backhand shot between the legs. It was Edinger's fifth goal in a Rivermen uniform and eighth of the season.

The Rivermen made it 2-1 on the power play at 9:59 of the second. Rennette took a pass from Brendan Brooks and skated into the Johnstown zone on the right wing. Rennette made his way to the inner part of the face-off circle and rifled a shot into the upper left corner for his first goal in six games and seventh of the season.

All heck broke loose 35 seconds later in the Johnstown zone. Peoria's Josh Kern got pushed into Campbell by P.L. Courchesne, setting off a melee. Kern started the fisticuffs behind the Johnstown goal with Kern taking a decisive win. Then Rivermen Captain Trevor Baker and Dominic Forget battled each other in the left wing corner, but before it was over, Campbell got in the middle of it along with referee Pat Britt.

Then Peoria's Bret DeCecco hammered Johnstown's Dmitri Tarabrin in the right face-off circle. What resulted were fighting majors for Kern, Baker, DeCecco, Courchesne, Forget and Tarabrin. Baker, DeCecco, Forget and Tarabrin each received game misconducts for the third-man-in altercations. Campbell was assessed three roughing minors (six minutes) for his part, and Valley was given a minor penalty for leaving his crease to pull Campbell away from the fray.

Johnstown tied it 2-2 at 15:00 of the second. Jason Notermann brought the puck into the Rivermen zone on left wing feeding Willie Levesque just off the right post. Levesque was stopped by Valley but pulled him well out of position with the save and converted on a wraparound shot for his third of the season.

The Rivermen took their second lead of the night with 1:19 remaining in the second period. With Johnstown on the power play, Edinger stole the puck in the slot from Johnstown's Shawn Mather and pushed it ahead to Rowe. Rowe maneuvered to the goal and slipped a backhand shot just in behind Campbell for his team-leading 13th tally of the season.

It was Peoria's seventh shorthanded goal of the season, tying them for the ECHL lead. It also tied Rowe for the ECHL lead with three shorthanded tallies.

The Rivermen face off against the Chiefs again tomorrow night in the second of two in a row between the clubs. Game time is 7:05 p.m. The Incredible Hulk will stomp his way into Carver Arena, courtesy of Marvel Comics and WGLO 95.5 FM.

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