PEORIA, Ill – The Houston Aeros took control of the Peoria Rivermen on Sunday afternoon, beating the hometown Rivermen with a strong forecheck and excellent special teams play in front of 3,008 fans at Peoria’s Carver Arena.
The teams were scoreless in the first period. Houston established a vicious forecheck but was unable to capitalize on three power plays. It was a well played period by both sides.
As tight as the first period was, the second period would turn out to be wide-open. The Aeros struck first. After 4 periods of shut-out hockey, the Aeros broke the spell and scored on Rivermen goalie Jake Allen. The forecheck caught the Rivermen on their heels and Colton Gillies passed the puck from behind the net up to Petr Kalus. Kalus deked Allen to the ice and then lofted the puck over the sprawled goalie for the first score of the weekend for Houston less than 30 seconds into the period.
Less than a minute later, Derek Nesbitt, just called up to the Rivermen from the ECHL, gathered the puck in the slot and passed to teammate TJ Hensick. Hensick one-timed a fluttering pass back to Nesbitt, who stuck out his stick and redirected the puck into the net behind Houston goalie Matt Hackett to tie the game.
Just 77 seconds later, Ian Cole, just down after a stint with NHL St. Louis, shot from the blueline and put a seeing-eye-puck past a screened Hackett for a 2-1 Rivermen lead.
That lead lasted just over two minutes. Houston tied the game on a power play goal by Jared Spurgeon and then took the lead when Maxim Noreau scored quickly after that. A goal by Joel Broda, on the power play, gave the Aeros a 4-2 lead and chased Allen to the bench.
But the period wasn’t over yet. With Matt Kassian in the box for Interference, the Houston penalty kill unit with Carson McMillan and Warren Peters broke away for a two-on-one against the just inserted Ben Bishop. McMillan scored the goal to push the Houston lead to 5-2. That’s how the period would end.
A scoreless thrid period followed, thanks to continued forechecking. A short fight between Peoria’s Mark Cundari and Houston’s Kalus livened up the end of the game.
Houston outshot the Rivermen 30-25 and killed all three of their penalties. The Rivermen killed off five of their seven penalties.
Peoria plays again at home Wednesday morning…yes, that’s right…morning. A 10 a.m. start for an ‘academic’ game. Several thousand school children will be in attendance and doing hockey-themed homework between periods.
Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com Photographs by Chris.Loudermilk@prohockeynews.com
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