AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Push Past Omaha 4-1 at Home

Published on April 9, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Peoria, IL (April 9, 2006) - Seven was lucky for the Peoria Rivermen Sunday evening but not so for the visiting Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. Peoria won its seventh in a row over Omaha to finish the season series, scoring two goals in each of the final two periods for a 4-1 win in front of 4,104 at Carver Arena.

The Rivermen (45-25-3-4, 97 points) completed its 10-game season series with the Knights with an 8-2-0-0 mark. Peoria, fighting for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, remains three points back of second-place Houston, who beat San Antonio at home 5-4 in overtime on Sunday. Omaha (34-29-3-10, 81 points) is winless in last five games (0-3-1-1). The Knights kept pace with the Iowa Stars, who lost in Chicago 2-1 on Sunday but own a three-point edge over Omaha for the fourth and final playoff spot with four games left for each team.

After Omaha took an early lead at 1:09 of the first period on veteran defenseman Steve Bancroft's goal from the left face-off dot, Rivermen rookie left wing Cam Keith got his team on the board at 6:30 of the middle stanza with a nifty unassisted goal. After knocking down an Omaha player in the neutral zone, Keith skated up the left-wing boards, sidestepping the Knights' Warren Peters in the face-off circle and then wristing a shot just between the left post and right shoulder of Omaha goaltender Curtis McElhinney for his sixth tally of the season.

Peoria took its first lead of the game at 11:15 of the second after an Omaha turnover in the neutral zone. Morgan took a pass from just outside the Knights zone and broke in with D.J. King on a two-on-one opportunity. Morgan looked off King and decided to take it himself through the left slot, snapping a shot over McElhinney's right shoulder and off the bottom of the crossbar. The goal was Morgan's 17th of the season.

The Rivermen opened up a two-goal lead at 10:37 of the final session. Fighting for control of the puck along the left-wing boards, Mike Zigomanis backhanded a slick pass to the front of the net to a streaking David Backes, who tapped it past a sliding McElhinney. For Backes, it was his fourth goal since joining the Rivermen from Minnesota State-Mankato.

A minute and a half later at 12:11 of the third period on the power play, Peter Sejna netted his 18th goal of the season after taking a pass from Jon DiSalvatore, who was in the left circle. Sejna smashed in the puck from the right circle just inside the near post for Peoria's fourth and final goal.

The Rivermen host the San Antonio Rampage on Tuesday in their second-to-last home game of the year. Peoria finishes its regular season in a home-and-home series with the Iowa Stars on Friday, April 14 and Saturday, April 15.

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American Hockey League Stories from April 9, 2006


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