AHL Peoria Rivermen

Schwarz Helps PlanetUSA Win 2007 AHL Skills Competition

Published on January 28, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


The PlanetUSA AHL All-Stars opened the 2007 Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic with a 19-14 victory over their Canadian counterparts in the 2007 CCM AHL All-Star Skills Competition at Ricoh Coliseum on Sunday night.

In the RepeatSeat Rapid Fire, PlanetUSA and Rivermen rookie goaltender Marek Schwarz, the St. Louis Blues' 1st choice, 17th overall, in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, stopped four of five chances from Worcester left wing Mathieu Darche and three of five chances from Houston veteran defenseman Curtis Murphy. In the Rbk Hockey Pass and Score, Schwarz - a 20-year-old native of Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic - stopped all three shots he faced, one each coming from Norfolk center Martin St. Pierre, Manchester defenseman and former Rivermen T.J. Kemp and Darche.

PlanetUSA defenseman Dustin Byfuglien of the Norfolk Admirals won the CCM Vector Hardest Shot event with a blast clocked at 98.7 miles per hour. Byfuglien joins current NHL'ers Anton Babchuk (2004) and Rene Bourque (2005) as Admirals who have won the event in the last four years.

Erik Westrum of the hometown Toronto Marlies captured the individual InGlasCo Puck Control Relay and the Springfield Falcons' Karri Ramo was named the winner of the Rbk Hockey Top Goaltender award, stopping 15 of 19 Canadian shots on the night to help PlanetUSA to its third Skills Competition victory in the last four years.

The Rochester Americans' Clarke MacArthur won the Rbk Hockey Accuracy Shooting event by hitting four targets in five attempts, and Jonathan Filewich of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins took the Rbk Hockey Fastest Skater contest with a time of 14.553 seconds. Curtis McElhinney of the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights helped the Canadian effort by stopping all 10 shots in the RepeatSeat Rapid Fire event.

The PlanetUSA squad will go for the sweep when the 2007 Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic continues on Monday night with the annual AHL All-Star Game. Coverage from Toronto begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, a series of regional networks in the United States, and at no charge via B2 Networks' video webcast on theahl.com.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from January 28, 2007


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.

OurSports Central