Sports stats



AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

February 16, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Upcoming Action

DAY

DATE

TIME

OPPONENT

Wednesday

February 18

7:00 p.m.

vs. San Antonio Rampage

Saturday

February 21

7:00 p.m.

vs. Chicago Wolves

Sunday

February 22

3:00 p.m.

vs. Quad City Flames

*Home Games in BOLD; all times are CST - ALL games are broadcast live on Hippie 101.1 FM, streamed live on www.rivermen.net . Video broadcasts are available through www.AHLlive.com on a pay-per-view basis.

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. PLUS all Wednesday games in February are Winning Wednesdays and if the Rivermen win all fans in attendance will receive a free ticket to the game on Feb. 25.

Saturday, February 21 - The first 2,500 fans in attendance will receive a Rivermen hat courtesy of OSF St. Francis Medical Center/Children's Hospital of Illinois.

Sunday, February 22 - Meet the St. Louis Blues! Members of the Blues will be in attendance to sign autographs on the concourse from 2-3 p.m. and between periods. It is also a Comcast/Journal Star/Fun on the Run/Coke Family Day - Just $1 admission for kids 12 and under plus hot dogs, cokes and chips will be available for just $1 each for one hour prior to the game. Inflatable games, balloon art and face painting will be available. Fans can skate with the team after the game (please bring your own skates).

WEEK 19 IN REVIEW (1-3-0)

DAY

DATE

OPPONENT

RESULT

RIVERMEN GOALS

RIVERMEN GOALIE (GA/SV)

Wed.

2/11

vs. Rockford

1-0 L

-

Manny Legace (1/21)

Fri.

2/13

@ Rockford

3-1 W

Conner, Fletcher, Junland

Manny Legace (1/33)

Sat.

2/14

vs. Chicago

4-1 L

Filewich

Manny Legace (4/31)

Sun.

2/15

vs. Rochester

4-2 L

Whitfield, Conner

Ben Bishop (3/17)

vs. Rockford (2/11): Manny Legace did not disappoint in his Peoria Rivermen debut as he made 21 saves only to see the Rockford IceHogs walk away with a 1-0 win on Wednesday night. Evan Brophey's goal at 5:51 of the second period stood up as the game-winner as the two teams went a combined 0-for-8 on the power play. Legace, assigned from the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, saw his first American Hockey League action since Dec. 30, 2005 when he was a member of the Grand Rapids in a rehab assignment. Annti Niemi earned his second shutout of the season with his 22 save performance. He improved to 3-1-1 against the Rivemen this season.

@ Rockford (2/13): After being shut out by the Rockford IceHogs on Wednesday night, Manny Legace and the Peoria Rivermen found redemption in a 3-1 victory on Friday night at the Rockford MetroCentre. Legace stopped 33 of 34 shots and Trent Whitfield earned assists on all three Rivermen goals. Legace, now 1-1-0 with Peoria, has only given up two goals on 56 shots in his two starts for the Rivermen. Peoria (26-24-1-1) controlled the puck for a majority of the opening frame, outshooting Rockford 15-6. The Rivermen worked to give Legace a breather as the Peoria netminder didn't face a single shot in the final 12 minutes of the first period.

vs. Chicago (2/14): Robert Gherson made 20 saves and kept the Peoria Rivermen scoreless until 19:21 of the third period to help the Chicago Wolves win 4-1 at Carver Arena on Saturday night. Peoria has now dropped back-to-back meetings with the Wolves to even the season series at 3-3-0. Chicago scored twice in the final 1:28 of the first period to go ahead 2-0 and never look back. The Wolves peppered Manny Legace with 31 shots over the course of the game to drop his record to 1-2-0 since joining Peoria on Sunday.

vs. Rochester (2/15): The Peoria Rivermen fell 4-2 to the Rochester Americans in their final meeting of the season on Sunday afternoon at Carver Arena. The Rivermen were held off the scoreboard in all eight of their power plays and scored their goals in the first and last minutes of the game. Rochester avenged a 2-0 loss on their home ice back on Dec. 12 by defeating the Rivermen and knocking them back to .500 on the season (26-26-2). It was the 20th win of the season for the Americans. Trent Whitfield's 15th of the season came a mere 40 seconds into the first period as he scored by winning a faceoff through Tyler Plante. Rochester responded at 4:16 of the frame to tie the game at one. Janis Sprukts countered with his 15th of the year after wristing one off the arm of Ben Bishop and into the net. It was the first start for Bishop over the past four games as Manny Legace saw his first rest since joining the team. He finished with 18 saves on 21 shots and suffered his 15th loss of the season.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON

THIS WEEK

POINTS

Regier - 38

Whitfield - 5

GOALS

Regier - 17

Conner - 2

ASSISTS

Regier - 21

Whitfield - 4

POWER PLAY

45-for-287, 15.7%

1-for-20, 5.0%

PENALTY KILL

225-for-277, 81.2%

16-for-19, 84.2%

NEWS AND NOTES

Where they stand.With 36 games left to play, the Peoria Rivermen sit in sixth place of the West Division, just five points out of a potential playoff spot. Their 54 points (26-26-1-1) are within three of Iowa and five of Chicago. Milwaukee (74) and Rockford (62) are first and second in the division respectively with Houston (61) claiming the third spot. The Rivermen have at least one game in hand on three of the teams ahead of them in the standings.

Right down the middle.The Rivermen are back at .500 for the first time Oct. 25 when they improved to 3-3-1 with a win over the Lake Erie Monsters. Peoria is 12-12-1-1 at home and 14-14-0 on the road.

Turn for the Worse.Since Dec. 28, the Rivermen have posted a 1-9-1 record at home after starting the season 11-3-1 at Carver Arena. Peoria has lost six straight games in regulation, an AHL franchise worst.

The More the Merrier.Trent Whitfield assisted on all three goals on Friday, marking the third time this season that he has accounted for three points in a game. He also had two points on Sunday and has a total of eight multi-point games on the season.

200 Club.Chris Conner appeared in his 200th professional regular season game on Sunday and celebrated by scoring a goal in the third period. Split between the AHL (148) and the NHL (52), Conner has collected 55 goals and 69 assists (124 points).

A Little Backwards.The Rivermen actually have a better record when they register fewer shots than their opponents. Peoria is just 9-13-1 when outshooting the other team but an impressive 15-12-1 when allowing more shots. They are 2-1-0 in games with the shots tied.

One isn't enough...Over the past four games, the Rivermen have scored just five goals and never more than one in a period. The last time Peoria scored multiple goals in the first period was Dec. 28 against Houston.

Quick Start.On Sunday, Trent Whitfield scored just 40 seconds into the first period, making it the 11th time the Rivermen have scored in the opening five minutes of a game. They are outscoring the opposition 11-6 in the beginning of the first.

An early lead. The loss on Sunday marked just the sixth time the Rivermen have scored the first goal of the game and not won. Peoria is now 19-6-2 when scoring the first goal of a game and just 7-20-0 when having to play from behind.

Special Teams.The Rivermen special teams have taken a hit as of late with the power play dropping 19.8 percent (ranked 5th in AHL) on Dec. 27 to 15.7 percent (ranked 22nd). The penalty-kill has been on a much steeper decline as of late as they have allowed 18 goals on their last 66 chances (72.7 percent). Since Jan. 23 the Rivermen penalty-kill has dropped from 83.3 percent to 81.2 over the last 11 games.

Way back when.The last time the Rivermen scored more power-play goals than their opponent was on Dec. 28 (20 games) against Houston when they went 1-for-5 and successfully killed off all six Aeros' chances. It had happed 13 times in the 33 games leading up to that date.

WEEK 20 PREVIEW

San Antonio

National Hockey League Parent Club

Phoenix Coyotes

Record

23-31-2-2

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen)

50 (-4)

West Division Standing

8th

Rivermen Record Against

3-2-0

Leading Scorer

David Spina (13g, 27a, 40pts)

Starting Goaltender

Josh Tordjman (20-19-2,2.56 GAA, .912 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank

15th - 17.4%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank

4th - 86.0%

Chicago Wolves

National Hockey League Parent Club

Atlanta Thrashers

Record

28-26-2-1

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen)

59 (+5)

West Division Standing

4th

Rivermen Record Against

3-3-0

Leading Scorer

Jeff Hamilton (15g, 34a, 49pts)

Starting Goaltender

Ondrej Pavelec (10-11-1, 2.62 GAA, .908 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank

25th - 14.9%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank

28th - 79.9%

Quad City Flames

National Hockey League Parent Club

Calgary Flames

Record

21-23-5-5

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen)

52 (-2)

West Division Standing

7th

Rivermen Record Against

5-1-0

Leading Scorer

Jamie Lundmark (14g, 36a, 50pts)

Starting Goaltender

Leland Irving (12-11-1, 2.27 GAA, .907 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank

20th - 16.2%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank

7th - 84.6%

*All statistics as of 2/16/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

02/11/2009 Yan Stastny (C) ADD Conditioning loan from St. Louis (NHL)

02/09/2009 Alexander Hellstrom (D) ADD Reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) from Alaska (ECHL)

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from February 16, 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.

Other Recent Peoria Rivermen Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central