PHN Photo Essay – Evansville IceMen @ Missouri Mavericks 11/19/11

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – T he Evansville IceMen completed their home-and-home series sweep of the Missouri Mavericks on the road with a 6-3 win on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 5,355 at the Independence Events Center.
With the win, the IceMen (8-1-1, 17 Points) took sole possession of first place in the Central Hockey League’s Turner Conference, pushing the Mavericks (7-3-2, 16 Points) into second place. In addition, Evansville’s road record improved to 5-0-1.
IceMen goalie Pier-Olivier Pelletier stopped 45 of 48 shots faced and earned the win, pushing his record to a league-best 2.26 GAA and .936 Save Percentage.
IceMen winger Malcolm Gwilliam tallied the first score of the contest at the 12:59 mark of the opening frame, assisted by Karl Linden and Mike Sgroi. It was Gwilliam’s first professional goal.
Evansville’s Todd Robinson caught a lucky break 61 seconds later on a misplay by Mavericks goalie Gerry Festa. Robinson was able to gather the loose puck and shot it into the empty net at the 14:00 mark to make it 2-0. 
Missouri got on the scoreboard later in the period, courtesy of a Roughing call on the IceMen’s Mark Cody. With just two seconds left on the man-advantage, Andrew Courtney beat Pelletier to cut Evansville’s lead in half. Sebastien Thinel and Ed McGrane were credited with the assists. Missouri out shot Evansville 23-15 in the first 20 minutes, but were down 2-1 at the first intermission.
Evansville took control of the game early in the second period with a tally from Nicklas Lindberg at the 1:55 mark, followed by a strike from Philippe Plante at the 8:53 mark.
The IceMen were assessed a Too Many Men Bench Minor four minutes later and Missouri’s Ed McGrane capitalized, beating Pelletier at the 13:49 mark eo make it a 4-2 contest.
Later in the period, the physical play heated up and Evansville defenseman Steve Makway and Missouri’s Cole Ruwe dropped the gloves, earning matching Fighting Majors for their efforts. Less than two minutes later, IceMen center Mario Boillard and Mavericks defenseman Zach Carriveau got into it and were also issued Fighting Majors with Boillard earning an additional two minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Once again, Missouri led the shot count, this time 12-5 and once again, they went into the locker room down by two.
The third frame was penalty-free and the Mavericks continued their ill-fated attack, leading with 13 shots on goal to Evansville’s nine. Once again, the IceMen struck first – this time it was an unassisted goal by Brian Bicek at the 6:15 mark to make it 5-2.
With Festa pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Mavericks’ Dale Mahovsky tallied their final goal of the evening at the 17:38 mark, off a feed from Courtney and McGrane, but Evansville wing John Ronan sealed the 6-3 final score, sending a pass from Nick Schneider into the empty net at the 19:43 mark.
Pro Hockey News’ Daniel Russell photographed Saturday night’s game at the Independence Events Center and has submitted the following images from the contest.

The Icemen will travel to Rapid City for a three-game series against the Rush (6-5-1, 13 Points), beginning at 6:35 pm MST at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
Contact the writer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at daniel.russell@prohockeynews.com