Rivermen Weekly
March 16, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release
WEEK 23 IN REVIEW (2-1-0)
DAY DATE OPPONENT RESULT RIVERMEN GOALS RIVERMEN GOALIE (GA/SV)
Fri. 3/13 @ Grand Rapids 4-1 L Junland Manny Legace (4/31)
Sat. 3/14 @ Grand Rapids 3-1 W Reaves, Drazenovic, Corazzini Chris Holt (1/29)
Sun. 3/15 vs. Quad City 5-2 W Whitfield, Stastny, Porter, Filewich, Fraser Manny Legace (2/27)
@ Grand Rapids (3/13): The Peoria Rivermen's season-long four-game winning streak came to a close on Friday night when they fell to the Grand Rapids Griffins, 4-1, at Van Andel Arena. The Griffins used a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal to take and early lead and pulled ahead to a 4-0 advantage before Jonas Junland stopped Jimmy Howard's shutout bid late in the third period.
@ Grand Rapids (3/14): The Peoria Rivermen handed the Grand Rapids Griffins just their sixth regulation loss at Van Andel Arena this season, with a 3-1 victory on Saturday night. Chris Holt turned aside all 13 shots that he faced in the third period, 29 of 30 overall, to earn his 10th victory of the season in his 14th start.
vs. Quad City (3/15): The Peoria Rivermen turned a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 win over the Quad City Flames with three goals in a span of 6:30 of the third period, Sunday afternoon at Carver Arena. The win was the sixth in the last seven games for Peoria and their franchise-best sixth consecutive win on home ice. The line of Trent Whitfield, Chris Porter and Yan Stastny combined for the first three goals in the game for Peoria as they all finished with three points.
TEAM LEADERS
THIS SEASON THIS WEEK
POINTS Whitfield - 43 Porter - 4
GOALS Whitfield - 19 8 players - 1
ASSISTS Whitfield - 24 Porter - 3
POWER PLAY 53-for-339, 15.6% 0-for-9, 0.0%
PENALTY KILL 270-for-327, 82.6% 9-for-10, 90.0%
NEWS AND NOTES
Where they stand...With 13 games left to play, the Peoria Rivermen have forced their way back into a potential playoff spot. Their 72 points (35-30-1-1) have them situated in a fourth-place tie with the Rockford IceHogs. They trail Chicago (73) by one point and Houston (75) by three. The Milwaukee Admirals (92) could wrap up the division title as early as Sunday. Iowa (68), Quad City (66) and San Antonio (58) are on the outside looking in.
Welcome Back Home...After starting the season with an 11-3-1 at Carver Arena, the Rivermen struggled going 1-9-1 over their next 11 home games. Since Feb. 18, the Rivermen have turned things back around by winning seven of their last eight home games and six-straight heading into their March 27 matchup with Milwaukee.
History in the making...The Rivermen have won six consecutive home games for the first time since joining the American Hockey League prior to the 2005-06 season. Their previous high was five straight wins between Dec. 18, 2005 - Jan. 14, 2006. This season they have set both the longest home winning (current) and losing (Jan. 7 - Feb. 15) streaks in their history at six games.
Finish Strong...Sunday's three goal outburst in the third period broke a 2-2 tie and propelled the Rivermen to victory. In the 11 games that Peoria has entered the third period in a tie score, the Rivermen have gone 8-3-0.
Goals=Wins...Peoria's last six wins have all come courtesy of least three goals scored in each game. Over their past seven games (6-1-0) they are averaging 3.57 goals per-game. In their previous seven games (3-4-0) they averaged just 2.00 GPG and their season average stands at 2.70 (21st in AHL). The Rivermen are 29-7-2 when scoring three or more goals in a game.
Evenly Distributed...Eight different players scored the eight goals for the Rivermen this week. Jonas Junland, Curtis Fraser, Ryan Reaves, Nicholas Drazenovich, Jonathan Filewich, Carl Corazzini, Chris Porter, Trent Whitfield and Yan Stastny all potted goals for Peoria.
Secondary scoring...Of the eight goal scorers this week, six of them still have fewer than 10 goals on the season. Fraser scored just his second of the year and Stastny added his third.
Better than ever...Since returning from a 10-game absence with a knee injury, Ryan Reaves has been on fire. He has three goals and two assists in his last seven games. Nobody on the team has more goals than Reaves over that stretch and only Yan Stastny (1g, 5a) has more points.
Working Overtime...The Rivermen are 9-2 when the game requires more than 60 minutes. Peoria is 3-1 in overtime and 6-1 in shootouts. Their .818 winning percentage in those games is best in the AHL.
Power Play...After a strong start to the month of March, (5-for-17; 29.4%), the Rivermen went cold this week (0-for-9). They finished the month of February with just four goals in 58 chances (6.9%). Overall their power play is operating at 15.6 percent and 17.2 percent at Carver Arena.
Penalty Kill...The Rivermen have killed off 45 of the last 50 (90.0%) power plays against them and 64 of the last 71 (90.1%), dating back to Feb. 8. They lead the league in SHG with 15 (two better than Hamilton, Hartford, and Rochester).
WEEK 24 PREVIEW
San Antonio Rampage
National Hockey League Parent Club Phoenix Coyotes
Record 26-35-2-4
Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 58 (-14)
West Division Standing 8th
Rivermen Record Against 4-2-0
Leading Scorer David Spina (15g, 31a, 46pts)
Starting Goaltender Al Montoya (5-16-2, 3.48 GAA, .875 sv%)
AHL Power-Play Rank 17th - 16.9%
AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 5th - 85.5%
Houston Aeros
National Hockey League Parent Club Minnesota Wild
Record 33-25-1-8
Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 75 (+3)
West Division Standing 2nd
Rivermen Record Against 2-1-1
Leading Scorer Corey Locke (22g, 45a, 67pts)
Starting Goaltender Nolan Schaefer (23-16-5, 2.59 GAA, .902 sv%)
AHL Power-Play Rank 2nd - 20.8%
AHL Penalty-Kill Rank 4th - 85.9%
*All statistics as of 3/16/09
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
03/14/2009 Trent Whitfield (C) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)
03/12/2009 Trent Whitfield (C) DEL Recalled from loan by St. Louis (NHL)
03/11/2009 Jim Jackson (D) ADD Recalled from loan to Gwinnett (ECHL)
American Hockey League Stories from March 16, 2009
- Pesonen Sets Team Mark, Satan Makes Penguins Debut In Win - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
- Penguins Unload Seven In Albany - Albany River Rats
- P-Bruins Release Miller from PTO - Providence Bruins
- Houston Aeros Weekly - Houston Aeros
- Rivermen Weekly - Peoria Rivermen
- Phantoms Weekly - Adirondack Phantoms
- Amerks Look To Snap Skid; Home Twice This Week - Rochester Americans
- Playoff Races Heating Up As Final Weeks Approach - AHL
- Hamilton Travels To Iowa, Quad City, Chicago And Milwaukee This Week - Hamilton Bulldogs
- Things to Know for the Week - Portland Pirates
- Rampage Weekly Update - San Antonio Rampage
- Wolves Weekly Notes - Chicago Wolves
- Crunch Goaltender Kevin Lalande Named Rbk/AHL Player of the Week - Syracuse Crunch
- River Rats See Playoff Hopes Fade With Two Home Losses - Albany River Rats
- Crunch Players to Sign Autographs at Tully's Good Times March 17 - Syracuse Crunch
- Flames Host Hamilton And Visit Iowa This Week - Abbotsford Heat
- Falcons Assign Huddy And Constant To Stockton - Springfield Falcons
- Lalande Lights Out - Syracuse Crunch
- Hogs Fall To Fourth In West After Week 23 - Rockford IceHogs
- 11th Annual New England Sled Hockey Tournament Coming Soon - Springfield Falcons
- Wolf Pack Weekly - Connecticut Whale
- Crunch's Lalande named Reebok/AHL Player of the Week - AHL
- Moose Sacrifice Four Points In Week 23 - Manitoba Moose
- Sharks chomp their way to fourth place tie with Portland - Worcester Sharks
- Lightning Assign D Josef Melichar to Admirals - Norfolk Admirals
- Crunch Players to Sign Autographs at Supercuts March 18 - Syracuse Crunch
- River Rats Post-Game Jersey Auction Returns - Albany River Rats
- Brandon Sutter Reassigned To Albany - Albany River Rats
- Admirals Return To The Bradley Center Friday - Milwaukee Admirals
- Monarchs Weekly Report - Manchester Monarchs
- Bulldogs Release Mark Van Guilder - Hamilton Bulldogs
- Rookie Machacek Gets The Call From Atlanta - Chicago Wolves
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