Monsters sink Rivermen in Peoria, 4-3

PEORIA , IL – While “Rivermen versus Monsters” might sound like a movie on the SyFy channel, the two AHL teams, Peoria and Lake Erie, squared off Sunday evening at Carver Arena in Peoria. Although the 2833 fans in attendance were hoping for a storybook ending, it was the Monsters that prevailed over the hometown heroes by a score of 4-3.
Peoria drew first blood at 7:22 of the first period when Chris Langkow won a faceoff in the Lake Erie zone. The puck came out to Graham Mink who took a step and teed up a wrist shot that went over the shoulder of Lake Erie goaltender John Grahame, stickside.
The Monsters retuned the favor a little les than five minutes later when former Rivermen Julian Talbot tipped in a shot by Julien Brouillette during a power play. Jake Allen, the Peoria netminder, got part of the puck but it flipped over the top of him and into the net to tie the game.
The Monsters would do the only scoring in the second period. They made it 2-1 when Matthew Ford filled an empty net when Allen was caught in the wrong corner at 6:51 of the period. The Monsters made it 3-1 when the Rivermen defense fell apart at the 10:51 mark and could not get a handle on several loose pucks. David Van der Gulik scored the goal for Lake Erie.
The Rivermen came back, getting some sustained presure on Grahame four minutes into the third period. Anthony Nigro put in a rebound from Daryle Boyl and Derek Nesbitt to draw Peoria to within a goal, 3-2.
Peoria continued with good pressure when an iced puck brought a faceoff in the Rivermen zone. Greg Maudlin took the dropped puck and skated in on Allen, burying the puck for the unassisted goal and a 4-2 Lake Erie lead.
The Rivermen were not done yet, though. With the clock winding down and on the power play, the Rivermen pulled Allen for a six-on-four advantage. Akim Aliu was able to cash in on blocked shots by Mark Cundari and Mink, putting the puck by Grahame’s stick on a low percentage shot from the along the goal line, setting up for the final 25 seconds behind 4-3.
That was all the scoring the Rivermen could muster, though. A frantic third period doubled their previous shot on goal output for the previous two periods as they ended up leading that category 32-31. Peoria and Lake Erie were one-for-five and one-for-six, respectively.
Note: The St. Louis Blues returned Tyson Strachan and TJ Hensick to the Rivermen late Sunday morning but they were unavailable for Sunday’s matinee game.
Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com