AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

Published on January 19, 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 15 IN REVIEW (1-1-0)

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

Fri. 1/16 @ San Antonio 2-1 W Junland, Fletcher Ben Bishop (1/48)

Sun. 1/18 @ San Antonio 2-0 L none Ben Bishop (2/26)

@ San Antonio (1/16): Justin Fletcher's goal with 30.7 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Peoria Rivermen a 2-1 win over the San Antonio Rampage on Friday night at the AT&T Center. Ben Bishop made a career-high 48 saves, including 21 in the second period, to help the Rivermen win the first game of their five-game road trip. Bishop stopped all 18 shots he faced in the third period to finish with a new career-high. He topped his previous best of 42 that he made on Dec. 5 vs. Chicago. The two teams combined to go 0-for-10 on the power play with the Rivermen stopping the Rampage on all six of their chances.

@ San Antonio (1/18): Just two nights after Ben Bishop's 48 save performance earned the Peoria Rivermen a win, Josh Tordjman returned the favor by stopping all 47 shots. The San Antonio Rampage blanked the Rivermen 2-0 on Sunday night at the AT&T Center as the Rivermen have now split the first two games of their five-game road trip. It was the fourth shutout of the season for Tordjman and the third time this year the Rivermen have been shutout. Peoria registered at least 15 shots in all three periods and outshot the Rampage 47-28 in the game. A scoreless first period featured three fights as Eric Neilson and Francis Lessard dropped the gloves just 3:14 into the game. Alexander Hellstrom fought, for the second time this season, as he squared off with Chad Kolarik at 12:51 they were followed up just a second later by Ryan Reaves and Simon Ferguson.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Regier - 30 multiple - 1

GOALS Conner - 13 Junland/Fletcher - 1

ASSISTS Regier - 18 Drazenovic/Foy/Regier - 1

POWER PLAY 40-for-234, 17.1% 0-for-9, 0.0%

PENALTY KILL 179-for-215, 83.3% 10-for-11, 90.9%

NEWS AND NOTES

Road Wins...Peoria's victory in San Antonio on Friday night pulled their road record to 10-10-0, an even .500 winning percentage on the road for the first time this year. The Rivermen have won six of their last nine road games and are now 10-11-0 away from Carver Arena.

Back-to-back...The last time the Rivermen won back-to-back games was Dec. 21 and 26 when they defeated the Houston Aeros and the Grand Rapids Griffins. Both of those wins came by a 4-3 score and occurred after regulation was already completed. The last time Peoria won two-straight in regulation was Dec. 11 and 12 when they beat Hamilton (2-1) and Rochester (2-0) on the road.

Same team, different result...Sunday was just the second time this season that the Rivermen lost a game in regulation when playing the same team for the second consecutive game. They are now 3-2-1 in the second game of the series with their only previous regulation loss coming to Quad City back on Nov. 14.

Coming up empty...Josh Tordjman became the third goalie this year to shutout the Peoria Rivemren when he stopped all 47 shots on Sunday night. The Rivs were shutout by Cory Schneider and the Manitoba Moose on Nov. 2 and again by Drew MacIntyre and the Milwaukee Admirals on Dec. 31.

Lots of shots...The 47 shots the Rivermen took on Sunday matched a season-high as a team. The only other time they have accomplished the feat was on Nov. 22 against Hamilton. That night it translated into four goals but they were still beaten 7-4 by the Bulldogs.

Cold Spell...The Rivermen power play was held scoreless in back-to-back games this week and are now 9-for-their-last-83 (10.8%) on the man-advantage. Since December 10, the Rivermen have been shutout on the power play 12 times in 19 games. That only happened four times in the first 24 games of the season.

Two was enough...For only the fourth time this season, two goals on Friday was enough for the Rivermen to win. Peoria is now 4-14-0 when scoring two goals or fewer but 18-5-2 when scoring three or more.

Second Period Woes...Both of the Rampage goals on Sunday came during the second period. The Rivermen are being outscored 45-35 in the second period this season while they have outscored the opposition 37-33 in the first period. Peoria and their opponents have drawn even 41-41 in third period goal production.

Big Ben...Ben Bishop earned a new career-high by stopping 48 shots in a 2-1 victory on Friday. He topped his previous high of 42 saves that he made against Chicago on Dec. 5. Bishop has made five consecutive starts and is just 2-3-0 but has a goals-against average of 2.02 and a save percentage of .934.

Back to the NHL...Trent Whitfield was recalled to the St. Louis Blues this week and registered an assist in their 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. It was Whitfield's first NHL action since the 2005-06 season when he dressed in 30 games for the Blues. A story about his recent promotion can be found here (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/blues/story/FEBABF29EED3152686257542001C9CC7?OpenDocument).

It's a boy!...Congratulations are in order for Rivermen goaltender Chris Holt whose wife gave birth to their second child on January 13. Dylan Christopher McCune Holt was born at 1:13 a.m. weighing 8-pounds, 4-ounces.

WEEK 16 PREVIEW

Houston Aeros

National Hockey League Parent Club Minnesota Wild

Record 20-17-1-7

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 48 (+2)

West Division Standing 2nd

Rivermen Record Against 1-0-1

Leading Scorer Corey Locke (15g, 29a - 44pts)

Starting Goaltender Nolan Schaefer (12-11-4, 2.42 GAA, .911 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 13th - 17.2%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank t-3rd - 86.2%

*All statistics as of 1/19/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

01/18/2009 Steve Wagner (D) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

01/16/2009 Tomas Kana (LW) ADD Reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) from Alaska (ECHL)

01/15/2009 Trent Whitfield (C) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

01/13/2009 Ryan Ludzik (G) DEL Released from PTO

01/13/2009 Ryan Ludzik (G) ADD Signed to PTO

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from January 19, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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