AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

February 23, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


WEEK 20 IN REVIEW (2-1-0)

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

Wed. 2/18 vs. San Antonio 5-0 W Wozniewski, Stastny (2), Drazenovic, Kana Manny Legace (0/26)

Sat. 2/21 vs. Chicago 3-1 L Talbot Manny Legace (3/26)

Sun. 2/22 vs. Quad City 2-1 OTW Whitfield, Talbot Ben Bishop (1/20)

vs. San Antonio (2/18): In his fourth start with the Peoria Rivermen, Manny Legace made 26 saves to shut out the San Antonio Rampage 5-0 on Wednesday night at Carver Arena. It was the first time this season that the Rampage have been held scoreless and the win stopped a six-game losing streak on home ice for Peoria. Read More...

vs. Chicago (2/21): Ondrej Pavelec improved to 3-0-0 against the Peoria Rivermen this season by making 33 saves in a 3-1 win for the Chicago Wolves in front of 4,611 fans at Carver Arena on Saturday night. In his three starts against Peoria, Pavelec has only allowed a total of three goals. His performance bested that of Manny Legace who was saddled with the loss despite making 26 saves. Read More...

vs. Quad City (2/22): Julian Talbot got the last laugh in a 2-1 overtime win for the Peoria Rivermen over the Quad City Flames on Sunday at Carver Arena. It was his 15th goal of the season and his second game-winner after Kevin Lalande made 33 saves to force overtime with the Rivermen. The win snapped the Flames' franchise record six-game winning streak as Ben Bishop stopped 20 shots in the contest. Read More...

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Regier - 39 Wozniewski - 4

GOALS Regier - 17 Talbot - 2

ASSISTS Regier - 22 Wozniewski - 3

POWER PLAY 47-for-302, 15.6% 2-for-15, 13.3%

PENALTY KILL 237-for-290, 81.7% 12-for-13, 92.3%

NEWS AND NOTES

Where they stand...With 23 games left to play, the Peoria Rivermen sit in sixth place of the West Division, just six points out of a potential playoff spot. Their 58 points (28-27-1-1) are within two Iowa and six of Rockford. Milwaukee (78) and Houston (65) are first and second in the division respectively with Chicago (65) claiming the third spot.

Milestone watch...Trent Whitfield is just three games away from his 600th career AHL game and just eight games away from his 800th professional contest.

Dousing the Flames...The win over Quad City on Sunday improved the Rivermen to 6-1-0 against the Flames this season. Historically it has not been much better for the Calgary affiliate as Peoria is 28-6-3 all-time against the Flames franchise (Omaha/Quad City).

Working Overtime...Sunday marked the first time since Jan. 31 that the Rivermen had their game go past regulation. It was the third OT win of the year and first since a 4-3 decision in Grand Rapids on Dec. 26. Between overtime and shootouts, the Rivermen are 7-2 when the game requires more than 60 minutes. Their .778 winning percentage in those games is best in the AHL.

Second period struggles...The Rivermen were outscored 2-1 during the second period in Saturday night's loss to Chicago. On the season they are being outscored 60-46 in the middle period; a period in which they have entered tied or trailing 44 times in 57 games.

Three of a kind...Manny Legace picked up the third shutout of the season for Peoria with a 26 save performance against San Antonio. The Rivermen have had three different goalies register shutouts this season with Chris Holt's 2-0 win over Rochester on Dec. 12, Ben Bishop's 4-0 blanking of Iowa on Dec. 20 picking up the first two. Legace's was the first on home ice.

Turn for the Worse...Since Dec. 28, the Rivermen have posted a 3-10-1 record at home after starting the season 11-3-1 at Carver Arena. Peoria ended a six game home losing streak on Wednesday, an AHL franchise worst.

A Little Backwards...The Rivermen actually have a better record when they register fewer shots than their opponents. Peoria is just 11-14-1 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.

An early lead... 21 of the Peoria's 28 wins have come following the Rivermen scoring the first goal of the game. Peoria is now 21-6-2 when scoring the first goal of a game and just 7-21-0 when having to play from behind. The last time Peoria scored multiple goals in the first period was Dec. 28.

Power Play...An 0-for-10 performance on the power play over the weekend dropped the Rivermen to just 2-for-27 (7.4%) over their past five games. In the month of February, Peoria is converting just 8.5 percent of the time (4/47). They are 4-6-0 over that stretch.

Penalty Kill...The Rivermen have killed off 12 of the last 13 power plays against them and 18 of 21 (85.7%) on their current home stand. They lead the league in SHG with 13 (two better than Philadelphia, Hamilton and Iowa).

WEEK 21 PREVIEW

Rockford IceHogs

National Hockey League Parent Club Chicago Blackhawks

Record 30-24-0-4

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 64 (+6)

West Division Standing 4th

Rivermen Record Against 4-3-0

Leading Scorer Petri Kontiola (13g, 35a, 48pts)

Starting Goaltender Corey Crawford (17-12-2, 2.61 GAA, .915 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 23rd - 15.4%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 26th - 80.3%

Manitoba Moose

National Hockey League Parent Club Vancouver Canucks

Record 38-17-0-5

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 81 (n/a)

NORTH Division Standing 1st

Rivermen Record Against 0-2-0

Leading Scorer Jason Krog (19g, 42a, 61pts)

Starting Goaltender Cory Schneider (20-5-1, 1.75 GAA, .933 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 18th - 16.3%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 3rd - 86.5%

*All statistics as of 2/25/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

02/23/2009 Yan Stastny (C) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)

02/21/2009 Tyson Strachan (D) ADD Returned on loan from St. Louis (NHL)

02/20/2009 Steve Wagner (D) ADD Returned on loan from St. Louis (NHL)

02/19/2009 Chris Conner (RW) ADD Returned on loan from Dallas (NHL)

02/18/2009 Carl Corazzini (RW) ADD Reassigned by Edmonton (NHL) from Springfield (AHL)

02/18/2009 Charles Linglet (LW) DEL Reassigned by St. Louis (NHL) to Springfield (AHL)

02/17/2009 Chris Conner (RW) DEL Recalled from loan by Dallas (NHL)

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 23, 2009


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