Houston sweeps Peoria

PEORIA, ILL – It was hard to take, but two soft goals ended the Peoria Rivermen season and propelled the Houston Aeros onward in the Calder Cup playoffs as Houston won Game Four by a 2-1 score and swept the series in front of 3009 fans at Peoria’s Carver Arena. Peoria came out hitting again, but not dominating as they had the previous night. Houston was not ruffled, however, sticking to their “game process” and sweeping away the Rivermen in four games. The Rivermen again scored first, for the fourth time in the series. With Drew Bagnall in the box for dragging down Akim Aliu, the Rivermen went on the power play. Peoria skated and passed and passed some more – more than a minute and a half without Houston clearing the puck until Nicholas Drazenovic went across the ice with a pass to Nathan Oystrick who then sent a knuckleballinto the far corner of the net past Aeros goaltender Matt Hackett. Peoria led 1-0 at the 8:03 mark of the first period. After failing to convert on a power play in the second period where for the entire two minutes the puck was held in the attacking zone, momentum would shift at 8:22 of the period when Houston’s Carson McMillan won a faceoff at center ice. The puck went to Jared Spurgeon and then to Drew Bagnall who dumped it in from the red line. Rivermen goaltender Ben Bishop, starting his first playoff game of his four-year career, muffed the play and the puck slid past him for the tying goal. Peoria would not recover. A couple minutes later, as the Rivermen attacked, the puck popped out and found Patrick O’Sullivan behind the Peoria defense. He raced in on Bishop who went down and O’Sullivan put the puck against the crossbar and into the net for the 2-1 lead. The third period was hard-fought, but the Rivermen were unable to build sustained pressure. They didn’t give up, though, as evidenced by Tyler Shattock. He made five bone-crushing checks in a single shift in an attempt to rally the home team. The Rivermen would not seriously challenge until they were awarded a penalty when Spurgeon closed his hand on the puck in front of the net late in the period. The ensuing power play, combined with the extra attacker, led to quality chances. With less than 30 seconds to play, the Rivermen had the game tied as two Peoria players fielded a rebound and Hackett was out of position, but they couldn’t get the puck in the net. The game ended with the puck spinning like a top behind Hackett but in front of the goal line. Peoria poked at it, but it was a second too late and the season was over.Peoria put eleven shots on goal in the third period and ended up with a 23-19 shots advantage for the game. The Rivermen scored once in three power plays while Houston was shutout in four chances with the man advantage. Houston will move on to play the winner of the Milwaukee/Texas series. Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com