AHL Peoria Rivermen

Three Games in Texas Precede Home Tilt Next Sunday

Published on January 16, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


Tuesday, January 17; Friday, January 20, RIVERMEN @ San Antonio: The Peoria Rivermen will begin their slate of four games this week in San Antonio, the home of the Alamo and the Riverwalk. There, they will take on the San Antonio Rampage on Tuesday and Friday in the recently re-named AT&T Center. The Rivermen and the Rampage have met three times already this season, and the Rivermen have prevailed outright in each contest. These two West Division foes last tangled on Saturday, November 19, when the Rivermen beat the Rampage by a count of 4-3 at Carver Arena in Peoria. The San Antonio squad serves as the main affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL), and the club now finds itself in seventh place in the West Division with an overall record of 12-25-1-1 and 26 points. Center Layne Ulmer (9 goals, 13 assists) and left wing Steve Gainey (7 goals, 15 assists) lead the Rampage in scoring at this point in the year with 22 total points each. Of the goaltenders on the Rampage roster right now, David LeNeveu has seen the most action, posting a 3-8-0 record, a 3.51 goals-against average, and an .894 save percentage in 11 appearances. The Rampage possess a power-play conversion rate of 12.3 percent, 26th best in the American Hockey League (AHL), and the team's penalty-killing success rate is now 81.5 percent, 20th best in the AHL.

Saturday, January 21, RIVERMEN @ Houston: From San Antonio, the Rivermen will travel to Houston on the Texas Gulf Coast for a game against the Houston Aeros on Saturday evening at the Toyota Center. The Rivermen have struggled against the Aeros in their previous encounters this season. Thus far, these two teams have matched-up four times, and the Rivermen have won only once in those outings. The Rivermen and the Aeros last squared off for two games in Houston back in mid-December, and the Aeros swept the weekend set by scores of 5-3 and 7-2. The Aeros operate as the primary affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. With 60 points on a record of 29-10-1-1, Houston currently leads both the AHL's West Division and Western Conference and ranks second overall in the League behind only the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Right wing Kirby Law (26 goals, 33 assists) and center Erik Westrum (19 goals, 40 assists) share not only the team scoring lead but also the AHL scoring lead with 59 points each. Netminder Josh Harding has played in 29 tilts for the Aeros and compiled a 21-7-0 mark to go along with his 2.63 goals-against average, .923 save percentage, and one shutout. As one might expect considering their excellent record, the Aeros boast excellent special-teams units. Houston ranks second in the AHL on the power play with a conversion rate of 21.4 percent, and the team stands fifth in penalty killing with a kill rate of 85.0 percent.

Sunday, January 22, Manchester @ RIVERMEN: This coming Sunday, the Rivermen will finish off a stretch of three games in three cities in three consecutive days by hosting the Manchester Monarchs at Carver Arena. The Monarchs are the only team from the AHL's Eastern Conference that the Rivermen will face this season, and they will do so only twice: once in Peoria and once in Manchester, New Hampshire. The primary affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, the Monarchs presently occupy second position in the Atlantic Division of the AHL's Eastern Conference with an overall record of 24-11-1-4 and 53 points. Manchester's leading point-getter right wing Brad Smyth enters the week with as many goals (20), assists (23), and points (43) as does Rivermen leading scorer right wing Mike Glumac. Adam Hauser has tended the Monarchs' goal in 24 of the team's 40 games so far this season, and he presently possesses a 14-8-2 mark with a 2.79 goals-against average, a .911 save percentage, and two shutouts. The Monarchs rank 24th in the AHL on the power play with a conversion rate of 12.7 percent. The team's 82.9 percent efficiency rate on the penalty kill puts Manchester 16th in the League in that category.

RIVERMEN ACTION LAST WEEK

Friday, January 13, RIVERMEN 4 @ Omaha 1: This Friday the 13th was good for the Rivermen, as they snapped a nine-game road winless streak by beating the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights 4-1 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. Neither team scored in this contest until the second period, when right wing Carsen Germyn netted the first goal of the game for the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights at the 6:08 mark. At 12:11 of the second, right winger Lee Stempniak tied the tilt at 1-1 for the Rivermen on a power play. Shortly thereafter, right wing Jon DiSalvatore deflected home a shot by Peoria defenseman Mike Stuart to put the Rivermen up 2-1 at 13:39 of the middle frame. Peoria winger Mike Glumac then extended the lead to 3-1 with his 20th goal of the season with just under four minutes remaining in the second period. In the third frame, the Rivermen got an insurance goal from center Trent Whitfield at 16:58 to go up 4-1, a lead they would hold until the final buzzer. Patrick Lalime guarded the Peoria goal in this contest and earned the win with a 20-save effort. The Rivermen out-shot the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights by a count of 31-21. In 12 power-play opportunities, Peoria struck for two goals, while Omaha went zero for four with the man-advantage.

Saturday, January 14, RIVERMEN 2 vs. Omaha 1: In the finale of last weekend's home-and-home series between the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights and the Peoria Rivermen, the Rivermen swept the two-game set with a 2-1 triumph at Carver Arena. These two West Division rivals started the scoring early on by trading goals in the first half of the opening period. At the 4:25 mark of the first, right wing Derek Couture gave Omaha a 1-0 lead. Just more than two minutes later, though, Rivermen center Trent Whitfield knotted the match at 1-1 with a power-play goal. Omaha and Peoria then battled through a scoreless second period before the Rivermen went up 2-1 2:48 into the third period on a lamp-lighter by right wing Jon DiSalvatore. Neither club scored after that point, and the Rivermen ended up with their second straight win. Patrick Lalime backstopped the Rivermen to victory in this contest by stopping 23 of the 24 shots that he faced from the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. The shot totals in this tilt ended up at 40 for Peoria and 24 for Omaha. Although the Rivermen had 11 man-advantage chances on this night, they converted only one of them. Omaha went zero for four on the power play.

YOU CAN'T STOP PEORIA ON THE POWER PLAY, YOU CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN IT!

The Rivermen possess one of the most lethal power-play units in the AHL. Last weekend against Omaha, the Rivermen scored twice on the power play on Friday night and then once more the next evening. The Peoria club has now registered at least one goal on the power play in each of the last 11 games. Going back further than that, they have scored at least one power-play goal in 18 of their previous 19 outings. The Rivermen enter this week's action ranked fourth in the AHL on the power play with a 21.1 percent conversion rate.

FINALLY, ANOTHER ROAD WIN!

By defeating the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights last Friday evening in Omaha, the Rivermen ended a string of nine consecutive road games without a win. Entering that game at Omaha, the Rivermen had not won on the road since they beat the Iowa Stars 4-3 in a shootout at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines back on Saturday, December 3, 2005. After that tilt, the Rivermen went on to lose their next five road games outright before losing in overtime at Milwaukee on Tuesday, December 27. Another outright Peoria loss then came in Chicago prior to a shootout loss at Hamilton. Peoria's 5-2 loss on Saturday, January 7, at Cleveland extended the Rivermen road winless streak to nine games (0-7-1-1). The Rivermen are now 1-7-1-1 in their last 10 tilts away from Carver Arena.

THEY'RE COOKIN' AT HOME

Including last Saturday's 2-1 victory over Omaha at Carver Arena, the Rivermen have now won each of their last three games at home. Through their first 19 home dates this season, the Rivermen have posted a record of 12-6-0-1.

CLUTCH WEEKEND

Peoria right winger Jon DiSalvatore was nothing if not clutch last weekend. In both Rivermen-Knights match-ups last Friday and Saturday, he came through with the game-winning goal. Overall last weekend, DiSalvatore scored 2 goals, picked up 3 assists, recorded a +3 rating, and fired 10 shots on goal.

WELCOME BACK, EMPLOYEES NUMBER 10 AND 20!

Right wing Colin Hemingway and defenseman Aaron MacKenzie both returned to the Rivermen lineup last Friday in Omaha after lengthy absences due to injury. All in all, Hemingway missed 15 games, while MacKenzie was sidelined for 16 contests.

RAGING RIVERMEN

D Mike Mottau has dished out 6 assists in the last seven games...RW Jon DiSalvatore has registered 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) over the last six contests...D Mike Stuart picked up his first point of the season with an assist on 1-13 @ OMA...RW Mike Glumac has tallied 1 goal and 2 assists in his last three games...C Trent Whitfield has recorded 1 goal and 1 assist in each of the last three tilts...D Jeff Woywitka has collected 3 assists in his last three outings...G Patrick Lalime has allowed just one goal in each of his last three starts (2-0-0-1).

RECENT RIVERMEN TRANSACTIONS

January 9, 2006 D Doug Lynch reassigned from the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) to the Alaska Aces (ECHL) by the St. Louis Blues (NHL).

January 9, 2006 LW D. J. King reassigned by NHL St. Louis from AHL Peoria to ECHL Alaska.

January 4, 2006 F Cam Keith returned to ECHL Alaska on loan from AHL Peoria.

January 4, 2006 LW Peter Sejna returned to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) on loan from the St. Louis Blues (NHL).

January 3, 2006 G Chris Beckford-Tseu reassigned by NHL St. Louis from AHL Peoria to ECHL Alaska.

January 3, 2006 D Doug Lynch reassigned by the St. Louis Blues (NHL) from Team Canada (IIHF) to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL).

RIVERMEN ACTION THIS WEEK

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17

PEORIA RIVERMEN @ San Antonio Rampage

7:00 p.m., AT&T Center

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20

PEORIA RIVERMEN @ San Antonio Rampage

7:00 p.m., AT&T Center

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21

PEORIA RIVERMEN @ Houston Aeros

7:30 p.m., Toyota Center

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22

Manchester Monarchs @ PEORIA RIVERMEN

6:00 p.m., Carver Arena

Radio: All Rivermen games are broadcast LIVE on HOPE 98.5 (WPIA-FM), the flagship radio station of the Peoria Rivermen.

Internet Audio: LIVE streaming audio of all Rivermen games is available for no charge at www.rivermen.net.

Internet Video: LIVE streaming video with the accompanying audio feed is available at www.rivermen.net through the facilities of the b2 networks. The video Webcast of each game is available for a pay-per-view fee of $6.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from January 16, 2006


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