AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

Published on February 2, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


UPCOMING PROMOTIONS

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

Wednesday, February 11 - Winning Wednesday! If the Rivermen win all fans in attendance will receive a free ticket to the game on Feb. 18.

Friday, February 13 - Peoria Rivermen Fan Night at the St. Louis Blues Game. Tickets are available exclusively to Rivermen fans for up to $70 off. Please visit http://rivermen.net/news/index.html?article_id=1819 for more information and an order form.

Saturday, February 14 - Season Ticket Holder Social prior to the game in the Lexus Club. Rivermen season ticket holders will get a chance to meet other season ticket holders as well as players before the game.

WEEK 17 IN REVIEW (1-1-0)

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

Fri. 1/30 @ Iowa 4-3 SOW Talbot, Fletcher, Filewich Ben Bishop (3.31)

Sat. 1/31 vs. Iowa 4-3 L Regier (2), Fletcher Ben Bishop (4/23)

@ Iowa (1/30): The Peoria Rivermen finished their five-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout win over the Iowa Chops on Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena. Ben Bishop turned aside 16 shots in the third period, 31 overall, and stopped three-of-four in the shootout to improve to 4-1 in shootouts this season. The Rivermen finished their trip 3-2-0 after picking up a win in San Antonio, Houston and Iowa. Julian Talbot and Jonathan Filewich both scored in regulation and in the shootout. Filewich's goal at 9:40 of the second period chased J.P. Levasseur from the game after he made 13 saves on 16 shots through 29:40. David LeNeveu was inserted and stopped all 14 shots he faced in regulation and overtime before allowing three-of-four in the shootout.

vs. Iowa (1/31): The Iowa Chops edged the Peoria Rivermen 4-3 at Carver Arena on Saturday night to split the two-game series. Steve Regier scored his team leading 15th and 16th goals of the season, but the Chops withstood a third period comeback attempt to down the Rivermen for the fifth time in seven meetings. The Chops were the only team to dent the back of the cage in the first period. Despite trailing 4-1 heading into the third period, the Rivermen scored twice and had a chance to tie the game with the extra-attacker on in the final minutes.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Regier - 35 multiple - 2

GOALS Regier - 15 Regier/Fletcher - 2

ASSISTS Regier - 19 multiple - 2

POWER PLAY 43-for-255, 16.9% 2-for-11, 18.2%

PENALTY KILL 195-for-238, 81.9% 7-for-10, 70.0%

NEWS AND NOTES

Where they stand...With 33 games left to play, the Peoria Rivermen sit in fifth place of the West Division, just one point out of a potential playoff spot. Their 50 points (24-21-1-1) are within three of Chicago, Houston and Iowa. Milwaukee (66) and Rockford (56) are first and second in the division respectively.

Thanks for coming...The crowd of 5,602 on Saturday night was the second biggest crowd of the year at Carver Arena. The only bigger crowd of the season was on opening night, Oct. 11, when 5,742 passed through the turnstiles.

New Year...The Rivermen closed out the first month of 2009 with a 5-6-0 record. It was the first time this season they were below .500 for any month.

Busy February...After playing just 11 games over the 31 days in January the Rivermen will run through 13 games in a 25 day stretch during the month of February. They will begin the month with three-of-four on the road before embarking on a six-game homestand. The Rivermen will see seven different opponents and visit five different cities before March 1.

An early lead... The Rivermen are 17-5-2 when scoring the first goal of a game and just 7-16-0 when having to play from behind.

Regier returns to form...Steve Regier has scored two goals each in two of his last three games. He now has seven points (5g, 2a) in his last seven games. He registered 17 points (9g, 8a) in his first 15 games of the season but had scored just two goals in his first 18 games back after returning from St. Louis. He leads the Rivermen in goals (16), assists (19), points (35), plus/minus (+10), and game-winning goals (4).

Defense vs. Offense...Justin Fletcher netted goals in back-to-back games to up this season total to four and the defenseman season total to 25. That is nearly 20 percent (19.2%) of the Rivermen's 130 goals on the year. Jonas Junland's nine goals are fifth most on the team among all scorers.

Shootout King...Ben Bishop improved won his fourth shootout this season by stopping three-of-four on Friday night. He is now tied with Mike Brodeur (Rochester), Antti Niemi (Rockford), and Jonathan Bernier (Manchester) for the league lead in shootout wins. This season Bishop is 4-1 and has made 13 saves in 20 chances.

Power Surge...Peoria's power play broke through for two goals on six chances in Saturday's loss to the Chops. It was the first time they have scored multiple power-play goals since Dec. 26 in Grand Rapids. They have scored two or more power-play goals 10 times this year but four of those games occurred before Nov. 6. The Rivermen are now 12-for-their-last-104 (11.6%) on the man-advantage. Since December 10, the Rivermen have been shutout on the power play 14 times in 23 games. That only happened four times in the first 24 games of the season.

Peoria PK...The penalty kill for the Rivermen struggled again this week by allowing three power-play goals in their two games against the Chops. They have now allowed at least one power-play goal in 11 of their last 13 games. They have killed off just 45 of their last 63 penalties (71.4 percent) which is well below their season total of 81.9 percent.

WEEK 18 PREVIEW

Chicago Wolves

National Hockey League Parent Club Atlanta Thrashers

Record 24-22-2-1

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 51 (+1)

West Division Standing 5th

Rivermen Record Against 3-1-0

Leading Scorer Joe Motzko (24g, 19a, 43pts)

Starting Goaltender Ondrej Pavelec (7-7-1, 2.31 GAA, .919 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 26th - 14.3%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 28th - 79.5%

Quad City Flames

National Hockey League Parent Club Calgary Flames

Record 17-21-5-5

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 44 (-6)

West Division Standing 7th

Rivermen Record Against 4-1-0

Leading Scorer Jamie Lundmark (12g, 34a, 46pts)

Starting Goaltender Matt Keatley (7-16-4, 2.68 GAA, .900 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 18th - 16.2%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank t-19th - 81.9%

Milwaukee Admirals

National Hockey League Parent Club Nashville Predators

Record 31-12-2-2

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 66 (+16)

West Division Standing 1st

Rivermen Record Against 1-4-0

Leading Scorer Cal O'Reilly (7g, 39a, 46pts)

Starting Goaltender Drew MacIntyre (23-9-1, 2.48 GAA, .916 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 4th - 19.4%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 2nd - 86.2%

*All statistics as of 2/2/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

02/02/2009 Andy Wozniewski (D) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

02/02/2009 Steve Wagner (D) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from February 2, 2009


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