AHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Weekly

Published on October 5, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


WEEK 1 IN REVIEW (1-1-0)

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

Sat. 10/3 vs. Grand Rapids 3-1 L Ryan Reaves Hannu Toivonen (2/27)

Sun. 10/4 vs. Rockford 3-2 OTW Junland (2), Tallackson Hannu Toivonen (2/32)

vs. Grand Rapids (10/3): The Peoria Rivermen kicked off the 2009-10 regular season on Saturday night but came up just short against the visiting Grand Rapids Griffins. Ryan Reaves scored the first goal of the season to give the Rivermen a 1-0 lead in the first but the Griffins scored twice in a 4 minute span to turn the game around in the second period.

vs. Rockford (10/4): It took overtime but the Rivermen earned their first win of the young season on Sunday over b y defeating the Rockford IceHogs 3-2 at Carver Arena. Jonas Junland scored twice, including the game-winner at 2:55 of overtime to help earn the victory. Special teams played an important role as the Rivermen scored twice on the power play while killing off five of Rockford's chances.

TEAM LEADERS

THIS SEASON THIS WEEK

POINTS Jonas Junland - 3 Jonas Junland - 3

GOALS Jonas Junland - 2 Jonas Junland - 2

ASSISTS Nicholas Drazenovic - 2 Nicholas Drazenovic - 2

POWER PLAY 2-for-8, 25.0% 2-for-8, 25.0%

PENALTY KILL 9-for-11, 81.8% 9-for-11, 81.8%

NEWS AND NOTES

And they're off...The Peoria Rivermen embarked on the 28th season of professional hockey in the city of Peoria and fifth season in the American Hockey League on Saturday. The Peoria Prancers began play in 1982 in the International Hockey League and changed the name to the Rivermen in 1984. The Rivermen joined the ECHL prior to the 1996-97 season and made the move to the AHL to start the 2005-06 campaign.

Home Openers...The Rivermen are now 12-13-3 all-time in home openers dating back to their days in the IHL and ECHL. The Rivermen are 3-1-1 in AHL homer openers and 3-2-0 in AHL season openers, after Saturday night's loss to Grand Rapids.

Settling in...The Rivermen will have a chance to settle in at home as they are in the middle of a season-long five-game home stand to start the season. Their seven October home games also matches a monthly high for the 2009-10 season.

Class of '07...The Rivermen will be putting a lot of stock in their rookie forwards this season. Lars Eller, Aaron Palushaj, Brett Sonne, and Anthony Peluso were all selected by the St. Louis Blues in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Eller was selected in the first round (#13 overall), Palushaj was taken in the second round (#44 overall) in 2007, Sonne was the Blues' third round choice (#85 overall) while Peluso was the sixth round selection (#160 overall).

Switching Sides...Adrian Veideman (Iowa), Adam Cracknell (Quad City) and Mitch Love (Houston) have all joined the Rivermen from other teams in the West Division.

New Alignment...With the Quad City Flames moving to Abbottsford, BC and the Iowa Chops having suspended operations, the West Division has gone from eight teams down to seven (with the addition of the Texas Stars). There will no longer be the ability for five West Division teams to make the playoffs. Only the top four teams will qualify.

AHL Premier...While the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues took part of the NHL Premier in Stockholm, Sweden to open the regular season this weekend their top affiliates (Grand Rapids/Peoria) took to the ice here on American soil. The Rivermen also faced off against Rockford on Sunday whose parent club (Chicago) opened the season in Finland.

Getting reacquainted...Peoria and Rockford met on Sunday for their first bout of the regular season. They had previously faced off twice during the preseason (Sept. 25-26) and will meet a total of four times during the month of October.

Punching the clock...When the Rivermen and IceHogs get together, chances are 60 minutes just wont be enough. Sunday was the fourth consecutive regular season meeting that ended in either overtime or a shootout. Eight of their all-time meetings have been decided after regulation. Peoria is 2-1 in OT and 3-2 in shootouts against Rockford.

Junland doubles up...Jonas Junland's two-goal performance on Sunday was the second of his pro career. The only other time was on Nov. 28, also against Rockford, when he scored two power-play goals in a Rivermen shootout win. It was the second game-winning goal of his career and first time it happened in overtime.

Lover or fighter...Mitch Love collected his first five penalty minutes of the season on Saturday courtesy of a fight with Paul Crosty. He has led his team in PIM each of the last three seasons (Albany: 2006-07, Lake Erie: 2007-08, Houston: 2008-09) and now has 700 PIM in his professional career.

WEEK 2 PREVIEW

Milwaukee Admirals

National Hockey League Parent Club Nashville Predators

Record 1-0-0-0

Standings Points (Relative to Rivermen) 2 (--)

West Division Standing t-2nd

Rivermen Record Against 0-0-0

Leading Scorer Three Players (1g, 0a, 1pts)

Starting Goaltender Mark Dekanich (1-0-0, 2.01 GAA, .933 sv%)

AHL Power-Play Rank 4th - 25.0%

AHL Penalty-Kill Rank t1st - 100.0%

*All statistics as of 10/05/09

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

10/05/2009 Ben Bishop (G) ADD Loaned from St. Louis (NHL)

10/05/2009 Dan Battochio (G) DEL Released from ATO

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from October 5, 2009


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