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AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

December 8, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


WEEK NINE IN REVIEW (3-0-0)

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

Wed. 12/3 @ Chicago 7-6 W Whitfield, Talbot (2), Imbeault, Lemtyugov, Soares, Drazenovic Marek Schwarz (5/17) / Ben Bishop (1/15)

Fri. 12/5 vs. Chicago 3-2 W Talbot, Junland, Soares Ben Bishop (2/42)

Sat. 12/6 vs. Quad City 3-2 SOW Vishnevskiy, Soares, (Soares, Lemtyugov, Drazenovic) Ben Bishop (2/29 - 1/3)

@ Chicago (12/3): The Peoria Rivermen picked up two points on the road from the first-place Chicago Wolves with a 7-6 win on Wednesday night at Allstate Arena. Nicholas Drazenovic notched the game-winner on a penalty shot goal with only 4:50 remaining in regulation to break a 6-6 tie. The seven goals was the highest offensive output this season by Peoria and their two goals in the final 20 minutes completed their first third-period comeback win. All four goalies appeared in the game as both Marek Schwarz and Robert Gherson were pulled after allowing their fifth goal each. Ben Bishop stopped 15 of 16 to earn the win in relief for the Rivermen.

vs. Chicago (12/5): After pulling out a 7-6 win Wednesday on the road, the Rivermen beat the first-place Chicago Wolves for the second consecutive game to pull within one point of the division leader. The two teams combined for five power-play goals as the Rivermen bested the Wolves 3-2 at Carver Arena on Friday night. Jonas Junland scored once and assisted on the other two goals while Ben Bishop was tested often and made 42 saves to pick up the win. It improved the Rivermen's record on home ice to 9-2-1 and put them in a tie with Hershey and Manitoba for the most home wins in the league. The Rivermen scored three straight goals to erase an early 1-0 lead.

vs. Quad City (12/6): The Peoria Rivermen capped a six-point week with a 3-2 shootout win over the Quad City Flames on Saturday at Carver Arena. They have won three consecutive games and are now 10-2-1 at home this season. The three-game winning streak is the third of its kind for the Rivermen this year and first since defeating Rockford, Grand Rapids and Quad City between Nov. 2-8. Ben Bishop was strong in goal for the second straight night and made 29 saves through regulation. He stopped three of four in the shootout. Nikolay Lemtyugov and Ivan Vishnevskiy were involved in both of the Rivermen goals during regulation while Lemtyugov, Josh Soares and Nicholas Drazenovic all scored in the shootout.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Lemtyugov - 19 Talbot - 5

GOALS Conner - 10 Soares - 3

ASSISTS Lemtyugov - 14 Whitfield/Talbot/Lemtyugov - 3

POWER PLAY 31-for-151, 20.5% 6-for-14, 42.9%

PENALTY KILL 110-for-134, 82.1% 12-for-14, 85.7%

NEWS AND NOTES

Safe at home...With Peoria's win over Quad City on Saturday, the Rivermen improved to 10-2-1 at Carver Arena. Their 10 wins are second to only the Hershey Bears' 11-2-0 home record.

Against the West...The Rivermen have not lost a home game in regulation to a divisional opponent this season. They fell to Iowa in overtime in their home opener on Oct. 11. The two regulation losses at Carver Arena are at the hands of Manitoba and Hamilton, both North Division opponents.

Powerful Play...Over the past four games the Rivermen power play has scored nine goals in its last 20 chances (45 percent). This comes directly on the heels of a 5-for-37 stretch (13.5 percent). The Rivermen now sit at 20.5 percent on the season which is ninth best in the AHL.

Home PP... The Rivermen are even better at home with a 25 percent success rate, tied for fifth best in the league.

Talbot's Tallies... Julian Talbot has accounted for four points (3g, 1a) over the last three games and now just one point off the team lead. Out of his nine goals on the year, seven of them have come on the power play.

It's not a shot contest...The Rivermen have been out-shot in each of their last six games but have posted a 4-2-0 record. They have surrendered at least 31 shots in each of the last five games (4-1-0) and overall this season have been out-shot 13 times but are 7-5-1.

Slim Wins... Peoria won all three games this week by just a single goal. It raised their total to seven one-goal games on the season with the Rivermen posting a 5-1-1 record in them.

Penalty Shot... Nicholas Drazenovic's penalty shot goal on Wednesday was the first penalty shot awarded to the Rivermen this year. It was the 21st penalty shot attempt in the AHL this season and just the sixth successful try.

Slow and Steady... Despite the Rivermen rarely piling up big goal outputs, Peoria has averaged 3.33 goals per game. That total is ranked sixth in the AHL and first in the West Division. They have only been held to two goals or fewer six times this season. They are 13-4-1 when scoring three or more.

Moving up North...The Rivermen will play all four of this week's games in against the North Division. They are 3-2-0 against the other side of the Western Conference. Peoria swept a two-game series with Lake Erie in October and fell to Hamilton on Nov. 22. This will be their first game against Rochester.

Twice in five games...After going the first 19 games of the season without a shootout, the Rivermen have now had two in their past five games. They have won both with Ben Bishop stopping 7-of-10 overall and Nikolay Lemtyugov scoring three times including both winners.

Big Ben...Ben Bishop collected all three wins this week in goal for the Rivermen and posted a 1.94 goal-against average in the process. His .945 save percentage included a career-high 42 saves on Friday. He stopped three-of-four in Saturday's shootout as well.

Oh Captain, My Captain...Trent Whitfield returned to the lineup this week after a five-game absence due to injury. He had a goal and two assists in his first game back and added and assist the following night.

WEEK TEN PREVIEW

Lake Erie Monsters

National Hockey League Parent Club Colorado Avalanche

Record 7-11-1-2

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 17 (n/a)

NORTH Division Standing 6th

Rivermen Record Against 2-0-0

Leading Scorer Brian Wilsie (8g, 6a - 14pts)

Starting Goaltender Tyler Weiman (5-5-1, 2.54 GAA, .916 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 19th - 15.6% (17-for-109)

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 25th - 79.3% (96-for-121)

Hamilton Bulldogs

National Hockey League Parent Club Montreal Canadiens

Record 15-8-2-0

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 32 (n/a)

NORTH Division Standing 2nd

Rivermen Record Against 0-1-0

Leading Scorer Yanick Lehoux (6g, 22a - 28pts)

Starting Goaltender Marc Denis (12-5-0, 2.64 GAA, .914 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 11th - 20.4% (28-for-137)

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 22nd - 80.7% (109-for-135)

Rochester Americans

National Hockey League Parent Club Florida Panthers

Record 4-18-0-2

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 10 (n/a)

NORTH Division Standing 7th

Rivermen Record Against 0-0-0

Leading Scorer Michal Repik (6g, 8a - 14pts)

Starting Goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu (3-10-1, 3.84 GAA, .873 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 27th - 12.3% (17-for-138)

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 29th - 77.0% (104-for-135)

*All statistics as of 12/08/08

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

Dec. 05 - Alexandre Imbeault (C) reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) to Alaska (ECHL)

Dec. 04 - Steve Regier (LW) returned on loan from St. Louis (NHL)

Dec. 03 - T.J Fast (D) reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) from Alaska (ECHL)

Nov. 29 - T.J. Fast (D) reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) to Alaska (ECHL)

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