AHL Peoria Rivermen

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Published on October 31, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


WEEK FOUR - RIVERMEN ACTION (1-1-0-0)

Saturday, October 28, RIVERMEN 1 @ Houston 7: The American Hockey League's (AHL) top-rated, penalty-killing Peoria Rivermen were unable to contain the last-place, power-play unit of the Houston Aeros, as Peoria allowed a season-high seven goals, three of those being power play goals, in a 7-1 loss in front of 8,374 at the Toyota Center on Saturday night. This is the second time in three games in which the Rivermen allowed three power play goals. The previous time was at Toronto on October 22, when Peoria gave up all three power play goals in the first period. The Aeros (3-5-0-1, 7 pts) opened the scoring three minutes into the game. While racing with a Peoria defender, right wing Matt Foy was able to negate an icing call, and while falling to the ice, backhanded the puck to the front of the net. Defenseman Curtis Murphy took the pass along the left post and chipped a shot above the left shoulder of the Rivermen goaltender Jason Bacashihua for his second marker of the season. Houston made the game 2-0 with a power play goal at 11:52 of the first frame. Defenseman Peter Ratchuk skated down the left wing boards and dropped the puck off in the left face-off circle for Foy, who snapped a shot that flew between the right arm of Bacashihua and left post. The goal was Foy's second of the year. The Rivermen (5-4-0-1, 11 pts) were able to cut the Aeros lead in half on a 4-on-4 opportunity and only 1.9 seconds remaining in the first. Defenseman Tomas Mojzis skated with the puck behind the net when he spotted center Trent Whitfield parked in front of the net and fed him a pass for an easy poke-in. In the middle of the second period the Rivermen had an opportunity to tie the game, but their struggles on the 5-on-3 power play continued, as they failed to record a shot in 1:40 on the two-man advantage. The Aeros were able to capitalize on another man-advantage opportunity at 13:34 of the second stanza, pushing their lead to 3-1 on their first of five unanswered goals. After Houston won a face-off on the right side, the Aeros took two quick shots that were both saved by Bacashihua. However, Foy followed the second rebound, and from the left side of the slot, he flipped the puck past a sliding Bacashihua for his second tally of the game and third on the year. Houston was able to do what the Rivermen did at the end of the first, scoring just as the second period wound down with four-tenths of a second left. Center Bryan Lundbohm stole the puck in the Peoria zone, and threw a pass out in front of the net, where right wing Danny Irmen took a swing at it and somehow snuck it past a sprawled out Bacashihua. The goal was Irmen's third of the campaign. Houston continued their dominance on the power play with their third goal on the man advantage at 3:49 of the third period, making the game 5-1. Foy fired a pass from the left face-off circle to the left point for defenseman Clayton Stoner, who wound up and slapped a shot through some traffic in front of the net and past Bacashihua for his first marker of the season. The Aeros added another goal at 6:43 of the third for a 6-1 lead after Ward stole the puck from Peter Sejna in the Peoria zone in the left face-off circle. The puck went straight to Irmen in the slot, who backhanded a shot over Bacashihua's left shoulder for his second goal of the night and fourth of the year. Houston capped off the scoring as defenseman Ryan Stokes blasted a shot from the left point that appeared to hit a Rivermen player and made its way past Bacashihua at 12:24 of the final period.

Thursday, October 26, RIVERMEN 3 @ San Antonio 1: The Peoria Rivermen Texas-two-stepped their way to a third straight win of the season over the San Antonio Rampage and their sixth in a row at the AT&T Center, dating back to last season, in a 3-1 road victory before 3,497 on Thursday night. Peoria (5-3-0-1, 11 pts) sealed the win at 10:32 of the third period. Defenseman Aaron MacKenzie took a pass from Magnus Kahnberg in the high slot and fired a low shot down the slot that left wing Charles Linglet, skating by the top of the crease, deflected up inside the right post past San Antonio goaltender Phil Sauve. It was Linglet's fourth goal of the year and third in the last two games. The Rampage (2-8-0-0) opened the scoring at 12:55 of the opening period. Right wing Rocky Thompson's cross-ice clearing attempt from the boards was picked off by left wing Tyson Nash, who broke down the right side of the Peoria zone and found Bill Thomas barreling down the slot. Thomas took the puck from his backhand to his forehand and lifted his second marker of the year inside the right post for a 1-0 lead. It was Rivermen goaltender Marek Schwarz's only blemish, as he stopped 31 of 32 San Antonio chances for his fourth win of the year. Schwarz is a scintillating 4-1-0 this season with a 2.20 goals against average and a .920 save percentage. Peoria answered back 2:31 later, as Mike Glumac took a pass from left wing Jon DiSalvatore between the hash marks, pushed toward the net and launched his third of the year into the upper right corner. With five seconds left in the period, DiSalvatore sprinted down the right side of the San Antonio zone, just beating a Rampage defender to the puck at the end red line. DiSalvatore, with his back to the goal, then spun and flung a low backhand shot on net that deflected in off the inside of Sauve's right skate.

MAY THE SCHWARZ BE WITH US... IT IS

Rookie goaltender Marek Schwarz, 20, has a four-game winning streak under his belt after Thursday's 3-1 win in San Antonio. The 6-foot, 180-pound native of Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, is 4-1-0 with a 2.20 goals against average (GAA) and a .920 save percentage for the season. Discard his North American professional debut, a 5-0 loss (at the hands of the Chicago Wolves), in which he received little help in front of him, and his record for the streak is 4-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA (6 GA) and a .944 save percentage (102/108). Last season, he posted a 7-8-0 record in 15 games for HC Sparta Praha of the Czech Republic Elite League (Extraliga) with a 2.57 goals against average (GAA) and a .920 save percentage.

ROAD ROUGH

The Rivermen finished a game under .500 (2-3-0-1) on the first of two season-long, six-game road trips. Peoria finished out the month of October on the road in a stretch broken up into two segments. The first segment, on which Peoria went 1-2-0-1, took the club out east to play the Albany River Rats for the first time ever (Wednesday, October 18 - 3-2 SOL), the Rochester Americans (Friday, October 20 - 3-1 L), the Hamilton Bulldogs (Saturday, October 21, 4-2 W) and the Toronto Marlies (Sunday, October 22 - 4-3 L). The second segment, on which the Rivermen went 1-1-0-0, took the team to Texas to play the San Antonio Rampage (Thursday, October 26 - 3-1 W) and the Houston Aeros (Saturday, October 28 - 7-1 L). The team will finish the last week of March and the first week of April with another six straight contests away from Carver Arena.

NINE IN NOVEMBER

Peoria will skate in nine November games, five of which come at home. The Rivermen open the month with three straight at home against the Chicago Wolves (Saturday, November 4), the Iowa Stars (Sunday, November 5) and the Albany River Rats (Friday, November 10). Peoria then plays four of the remaining six contests on the road by traveling to play the Milwaukee Admirals (Saturday, November 11), the Grand Rapids Griffins (Friday, November 17), Chicago (Sunday, November 19) and the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights (Saturday, November 25). The Rivermen will also enjoy home games against Milwaukee (Saturday, November 18) and Omaha (Friday, November 24; as part of a home-and-home set).

RECENT RIVERMEN TRANSACTIONS

October 25, 2006 G Chris Beckford-Tseu reassigned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) to the Alaska Aces (ECHL).

October 24, 2006 D Patrick Wellar reassigned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) to the Alaska Aces (ECHL).

October 23, 2006 RW Ryan MacMurchy recalled from to the Alaska Aces (ECHL).

October 23, 2006 LW D.J. King loaned by the St. Louis to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL).

October 17, 2006 RW Ryan MacMurchy loaned to the Alaska Aces (ECHL).

October 14, 2006 G Jason Bacashihua loaned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL)

October 2, 2006 C Trevor Baker, LW Greg Mauldin, LW Gino Guyer released from Professional Try-out (PTO).

October 1, 2006 C Denis Pederson, C Trent Whitfield, LW Magnus Kahnberg, RW Mike Glumac, D Mike Stuart loaned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL).

RIVERMEN ACTION THIS WEEK

all times are local

DAY DATE TIME OPPONENT

Saturday November 4, 2006 8:00 PM Chicago Wolves

Sunday November 5, 2006 4:00 PM Iowa Stars

Radio: All Rivermen games this week are broadcast LIVE on Classic Country 1290 AM (WIRL-AM), the flagship radio station of the Rivermen.*

November 4 was originally scheduled as a TBA but is now LIVE.

Internet Audio: LIVE streaming audio of all Rivermen games is available for no charge at www.rivermen.net.

Internet Video: LIVE streaming video with the accompanying audio feed is available at www.rivermen.net through the facilities of the b2 networks. The video Webcast of each game is available for a pay-per-view fee of $6.

SCOUTING THE WOLVES

National Hockey League Parent Club: Atlanta Thrashers

Record Entering This Week: 5-3-1-0

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen): 11 (-)

Western Conference Standing: T-4th Place

West Division Standing: T-3rd Place

Rivermen Record vs. Chicago: 0-1-0-0

Leading Scorer: RW Darren Haydar (9 GP, 8 G, 8 A, 16 PTS)

Number-1 Goaltender: Michael Garnett (6 GP, 3-3-0, 3.52 GAA, .879 SV PCT., 1 SO)

AHL Power-play Ranking Entering This Week: T-20th (13.9%)

AHL Penalty-kill Ranking Entering This Week: 11th (84.6%)

SCOUTING THE STARS

National Hockey League Parent Club: Dallas Stars

Record Entering This Week: 7-2-0-0

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen): 14 (+3)

Western Conference Standing: 3rd Place

West Division Standing: 2nd Place

Rivermen Record vs. Stars: 5-4-0-1 (2005-06 Regular Season); 2-2-0-1 (2005-06 Home)

Leading Scorer: RW Junior Lessard (9 GP, 8 G, 7 A, 15 PTS)

Number-1 Goaltender: Dan Ellis (6 GP, 5-1-0, 3.52 GAA, .880 SV PCT)

AHL Power-play Ranking Entering This Week: 8th (21.3%)

AHL Penalty-kill Ranking Entering This Week: 5th (89.6%)

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from October 31, 2006


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