AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

Published on January 12, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


UPCOMING PROMOTIONS

All Wednesday Games - Pilot's House tickets to all Rivermen Wednesday home games are available for just $8 until the end of the season.

Saturday, January 31 - US Cellular presents Cody Linley of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" and Disney's "Hannah Montana," will be signing autographs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The Rivermen will be wearing white St. Louis Blues jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game to benefit the Children's Hospital of Illinois. Meliss' Beauty and Grooming Source will be giving "Haircuts for Charity" to raise additional funds.

WEEK 14 IN REVIEW (1-2-0)

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

Wed. 1/7 vs. Iowa 3-1 L Cowan Ben Bishop (2/20)

Sat. 1/10 @ Chicago 3-2 W Neilson, Cowan, Whitfield Ben Bishop (2/23)

Sun. 1/11 vs. Manitoba 4-3 L Filewich, Wagner, Regier Ben Bishop (3/25)

vs. Iowa Chops (1/7): A scoreless tie through the first 40 minutes ended in a 3-1 win for the Iowa Chops over the Peoria Rivermen Wednesday night at Carver Arena. Jeff Cowan scored the only goal for the Rivermen to tie the game at one with 11:25 remaining in regulation but Matt Beleskey's power-play goal at 10:26 proved to be the game winner. Both Ben Bishop and David LeNeveu kept the shooters off the board through the first two periods by turning away 15 and 16 shots respectively. The Rivermen were held to 0-for-5 on the power play while the Chops scored on just two chances.

@ Chicago Wolves (1/10): The Peoria Rivermen scored early and never trailed in their 3-2 win over the Chicago Wolves on Saturday night at Allstate Arena. Trent Whitfield's goal with 0.2 seconds left in the second period proved to be the game winner as Chicago scored twice in the third period to get back within one. Peoria has now won three out of four meetings against the defending Calder Cup Champions with the only loss coming in their first meeting on Oct. 18. The Rivermen win extended the Wolves' losing streak to six games. Jonas Junland's minor at 18:55 gave Chicago a six-on-four advantage for the final 65 seconds of regulation but Ben Bishop's 23 save performance was enough to hold off the Wolves. The Rivermen were outshot 12-1 over the final 20 minutes and 25-17 in the game.

vs. Manitoba Moose (1/11): The Peoria Rivermen scored three goals in the final 17 minutes of regulation but couldn't complete the comeback in a 4-3 loss to the Manitoba Moose at Carver Arena on Sunday evening.

Physical play helped the Rivermen control much of the early part of the game and led to Eric Neilson dropping the gloves with Zack FitzGerald midway through the first period. They outshot the Moose 9-8 in the first but it finished in a scoreless tie. The Moose scored twice in the opening four minutes of the second period and again halfway through to build a 3-0 lead heading into the third period. Jonathan Filewich and Steve Wagner added goals at 3:46 and 7:43 to bring the Rivermen back within one. After allowing an empty-net goal with 19 seconds remaining, Peoria stormed back down the ice with a Steve Regier tally with only 7.3 remaining.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Regier - 29 Wagner - 4

GOALS Conner - 13 Cowan - 2

ASSISTS Regier - 17 Wagner - 3

POWER PLAY 40-for-225, 17.8% 2-for-11, 18.2%

PENALTY KILL 169-for-204, 82.8% 11-for-14, 78.6%

NEWS AND NOTES

Halfway Home...The Rivermen played their 40th game of the season on Saturday night and posted a 21-17-1-1 record in the first half of the season. They will play 39 games over the next 89 days to close out the regular season on April 11 against Grand Rapids.

Mid-season Struggle...Since Dec. 27 the Rivermen offense has been struggling to keep up with the opposition. Over the last nine games the Rivermen have gone 2-6-1 and are averaging just 1.77 goals per game. They are allowing 2.77 over the same stretch.

Close Calls...Win, lose or draw the Rivermen seem to play nothing but nail biters lately. During the past 20 games, only one game has been decided by more than two goals (4-0 vs. Iowa on Dec. 20). Peoria is 10-9-1 in those games with 12 of them decided by just a single goal. Three more have been two-goal games involving an empty net goal.

Visitors from the North...Saturday was the 12th game of the season for the Rivermen against a North Division opponent. Peoria is 6-6-0 overall. The Rivs will not see another North opponent until they visit Manitoba for a two game series on Feb.27 and 28.

Oh Captain, My Captain...Trent Whitfield's slapshot with 0.2 seconds left in the second period on Saturday was his fifth goal in the last five games. He has scored the game-winner in each of the last two wins and now is just one back of Chris Conner for the team lead in goals with 12.

Cowboy Up...Jeff Cowan has scored in back-to-back games this week for the Rivermen and now has scored four goals on the season. A veteran of 413 NHL games, Cowan did not score a goal last season in 46 games with Vancouver. He now has 46 AHL goals in 247 games.

Unlikely Source...Eric Neilson's goal on Saturday was his second of the year and first since October 31 against the Quad City Flames. It was his 10th professional goal with his previous eight coming in the ECHL.

Overdue...Steve Regier stopped a nine-game goalless stretch with his last minute tally on Sunday. He has scored just three times in 19 games since returning from the NHL on Dec. 5. In comparison, he had nine goals in first 15 games of the season before his promotion.

Killing the problem...Over the last 21 games, the Rivermen have reduced the number of penalties against and increased their penalty kill percentage. Forced to kill off 116 power plays in the first 20 games of the season, the Rivermen were successful 79.3 percent of the time. Since Nov. 28, the Rivermen have killed off 80 of their 93 opportunities, 86.0 percent.

Lack of Support...Since Chris Holt returned from Alaska on Dec. 11, the Rivermen have not provided him many goals to work with. In his last nine starts (4-5-0) the Rivermen are averaging 1.66 goals per game. Only once (Dec. 26 vs. GR) have the Rivs posted more than three goals for him.

Holt is still hot...Overall this season Chris Holt is 6-5-0 with a 1.73 goals-against average and has only allowed more than two goals twice. He is less than is 60 minutes shy of qualifying to be the AHL leader in GAA (Cory Schneider currently leads the league with a 1.43 mark).

WEEK 15 PREVIEW

San Antonio Rampage

National Hockey League Parent Club Phoenix Coyotes

Record 15-25-0-1

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 31 (-13)

West Division Standing 8th

Rivermen Record Against 2-1-0

Leading Scorer Jeff Hoggan (17g, 6a, 23pts)

Starting Goaltender Josh Tordjman (13-14-1, 2.69 GAA, .904 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 17th - 15.8%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 8th - 84.5%

*All statistics as of 1/12/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

01/10/2009 Ryan Turek (D) DEL Released from ATO

01/06/2009 Ivan Vishnevskiy (D) ADD Returned on loan from Dallas (NHL)

01/06/2009 Ryan Turek (D) ADD Signed to ATO

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from January 12, 2009


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