AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

Published on November 17, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


WEEK FIVE IN REVIEW (2-2-0)

DAY DATE OPPONENT RESULT RIVERMEN GOALS RIVERMEN GOALIE (GA/SV)

Wed. 11/12 @ Quad City 4-1 W Paddock, Conner, Regier, Whitfield Ben Bishop (1/24)

Fri. 11/14 @ Quad City 5-3 L Lemtyugov, Conner, Linglet Ben Bishop (5/15)

Sat. 11/15 vs. San Antonio 5-3 W Winchester (2), Drazenovic, Whitfield, Conner Marek Schwarz (3/15)

Sun. 11/16 @ Rockford 4-1 L Conner Ben Bishop (3/25)

@ Quad City (11/12): In their first road game in 19 days the Peoria Rivermen defeated the Quad City Flames 4-1 at the iWireless Center in Moline, IL. The Rivermen penalty-kill held the Flames off the board despite 11 power plays, including a pair of abbreviated 5-on-3's. Ben Bishop, in his first appearance since returning from the St. Louis Blues, made 23 saves to win his third game of the season. Cam Paddock and Chris Conner scored goals 19 seconds apart in the opening minutes of the second period to give Peoria a 2-1 lead

@ Quad City (11/14): The Quad City Flames used three power-play goals to defeat the Peoria Rivermen 5-3 at the iWireless Center on Friday night. It was the first loss to the Flames in their four meetings this season. It snapped a three-game winning streak and was the first time the Rivermen allowed five goals in a game since a 6-3 loss to Milwaukee on Oct. 24. The two teams traded a pair of goals in the first period but the Flames scored three unanswered tallies in the second period to pull ahead for good. Ben Bishop made just 15 saves as the Rivermen outshot the Flames 24-20 in a losing effort.

vs. San Antonio (11/15): The Peoria Rivermen scored twice in the third period to take a 5-3 win away from their first meeting of the season with the San Antonio Rampage on Saturday night. For the Rivermen, it was their third straight home win and they gave them 15 points at home through nine games at Carver Arena, most in the league. Brad Winchester (two goals), Charles Linglet (two assists) and Chris Conner (one goal, one assist) all had two point nights and Trent Whitfield scored the game-winner just 37 seconds into the third period. Marek Schwarz made 15 saves on 18 shots in the win.

@ Rockford (11/16): Chris Conner scored for the fifth straight game but it was the Peoria Rivermen's only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday evening at the MetroCentre. His tally came at 4:52 of the first period and Annti Niemi held the Rivermen scoreless over the game's final 55 minutes to finish with 27 saves. Rockford scored twice on the power play in five chances to improve to 22.1 percent, the second best percentage in the league. Ben Bishop made 25 saves in net on 28 shots before the IceHogs added an empty netter to expand their lead in the final two minutes.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Regier - 17 Conner - 6

GOALS Regier / Conner - 9 Conner - 4

ASSISTS Regier / Lemtyugov - 8 Linglet - 3

POWER PLAY 18-for-107, 16.8% 1-for-23, 4.3%

PENALTY KILL 76-for-94, 80.9% 18-for-24, 75.0%

NEWS AND NOTES

Home Cooking... The Rivermen are 7-1-1 at Carver Arena this season giving them the second-best home winning percentage (.833) in the league at this point. The Portland Pirates (7-1-0, .875) is the only team with a better percentage. Peoria is outscoring the competition 33-22 on home ice.

Shooting Star...Dallas Stars prospect Chris Conner has scored a goal in each of the last five games to up his season total to nine. It is the second longest streak in the AHL so far this season, behind Mark Mancari of Portland and Brian Willsie of Lake Erie who each scored in six consecutive games. Mancari's streak is also still active.

Answering the Bell...Three times this week, the Rivermen responded from an opposing team's goal with a goal of their own within 55 seconds. On Wednesday in Quad City, Cam Paddock tied the game at one just 43 seconds after the Flames took the games first lead. On Saturday against San Antonio, Trent Whitfield scored the eventual game winning goal just 37 seconds into the third period after the Rampage had tied the game at three with just 18 seconds to play in the middle frame. Then on Sunday in Rockford, the Rivermen responded within 25 seconds of the IceHogs first goal at 4:52 of the first. The fastest response by the Rivermen was on October 12 against Quad City when they scored just 15 seconds after the Flames.

Jump Start the Period...On Saturday night, the Rivermen scored in the opening three minutes of all three periods in route to a 5-3 win over San Antonio. In all, Peoria has scored 13 goals in the first five minutes of a period this season with nine of them coming in the opening three minutes.

Tied After Two...The Peoria Rivermen are a perfect 4-0-0 when entering the third period in a tie game. They are 5-1-1 when carrying a lead into the final frame but a disappointing 0-5-0 in third period comeback attempts.

Breakout Period... Peoria is still waiting for a big breakout period. They have scored two goals in 16 different periods (out of a possible 48) but have yet to put three or more on the board in a single frame. They have been held scoreless in 12 periods (25 percent).

Shrinking Shot Totals... The Rivermen have been able to limit the opposing team shots to less than 30 in 13 of the last 14 games. They are averaging 25.69 shots against per game, the fourth lowest total in the AHL. Peoria is 6-3-0 when out shooting their opponent.

Two to Tango... The Rivs are a perfect 7-0-0 when holding their opponents to two goals or less.

Representing the Rookies...Ben Bishop's 2.69 GAA is the 20th lowest in the AHL and third best among rookie netminders. Peter Mannino (Bridgeport) at 2.46 and Simeon Varlamov (Hershey) at 2.68 are the only rookies with a better GAA than Bishop.

Power Outage...After beginning the season by scoring 17 power-play goals in 84 opportunities, the Rivs PP unit went cold scoring just once over their past 24 chances. Their percentage has dropped from 20.2 percent down to 16.8 percent over the four game stretch. The drought began in the third period on Nov. 8 vs. Grand Rapids.

Still Waiting for the Shootout... The Rivermen are one of just four teams to have not had a game go to a shootout yet this season. Three out of four teams (Peoria, Quad City and Iowa) are in the West Division. The Rivermen have only had two games go to overtime and are 1-1.

St. Louis Rivermen... Cam Paddock, Steve Regier and Jeff Woywitka were all recalled by the Blues this week and made an immediate impact. Paddock scored his first NHL goal just 10:24 into his NHL debut on Friday night in Chicago. Steve Regier scored his first two NHL goals on Sunday against Montreal with Paddock and Woywitka each assisting on one of his goals.

WEEK SIX PREVIEW

Rockford IceHogs

National Hockey League Parent Club Chicago Blackhawks

Record 9-6-0-1

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 19 (--)

West Division Standing t-2nd

Rivermen Record Against 1-1-0

Leading Scorer Petri Kontiola (6g, 9a - 15pts)

Starting Goaltender Antti Niemi (5-3-0, 1.63 GAA, .943 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 2nd - 22.1% (21-for-95)

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 10th - 85.6% (83-for-97)

Hamilton Bulldogs

National Hockey League Parent Club Montreal Canadiens

Record 11-4-1-0

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 23 (n/a)

NORTH Division Standing 3rd

Rivermen Record Against 0-0-0

Leading Scorer Matt D'Agostini (12g, 7a - 19pts)

Starting Goaltender Marc Denis (10-2-0, 1.98 GAA, .934 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank t-12th - 17.8% (16-for-90)

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 5th - 88.5% (77-for-87)

*All statistics as of 11/10/08

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

Nov. 17 - Steve Regier (LW) returned on loan from St. Louis (NHL)

Nov. 17 - Jon Booras (F) released from P.T.O

Nov. 16 - Jon Booras (F) signed to P.T.O

Nov. 16 - Josh Soares (C) signed to P.T.O

Nov. 16 - T.J. Fast (D) reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) from Alaska (ECHL)

Nov. 16 - Steve Regier (LW) recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

Nov. 13 - Cam Paddock (RW) recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from November 17, 2008


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