PEORIA, Ill – The first place Peoria Rivermen entered the weekend with 53 points, leading the Western Division. They ended the weekend without adding to their total, going winless on a three games in three nights homestand.
Saturday night the Rivermen capped the 0 for three weekend with a 3-1 loss to the Texas Stars. Texas simply out-hustled and out-shot Peoria for the entire sixty minutes in front of 5593 disappointed fans at the Peoria Civic Center.
Texas got on the board first when Brad Lukowich, Colton Sceviour and Philip Larson played a little tic-tac-toe between the Rivermen defense. Larson finished with a shot over the left shoulder of Peoria’s All-Star goaltender, Jake Allen, for a 1-0 lead just past the halfway point of the first period.
The Stars then got a power play goal from Greg Rallo, who snagged a loose puck and slipped it past a sprawling Allen. Francis Walthier and Dan Spang each had a hack at the puck before Rallo to gather assists on the play.
The Rivermen were finally able to answer in the second period when TJ Hensick came down the left and made a nifty cross-ice pass to Derek Nesbitt on the right. Nesbitt one-timed a shot and Graham Mink, camped out in front of Texas netminder Tyler Beskorowany, tipped it in to cut the Texas lead in half.
In the third period, some pushing and shoving lead to Dean Arsene and Greg Rallo squared off. Arsene quickly undressed Rallo with several rights before they both headed off to the box, still having words with one another.
The scoring ended with Brandon Segal fidning the empty net with just over a minute to play, as the Rvermen tried to rally with the extra attacker.
Beskorowany got the win, stopping 30 of 31 shots on goal. Allen stopped 36 of 38 shots in the loss, including a penalty shot by Travis Morin late in the third.
The Rivermen take to the road for four games before returning home against Rockford on January 25.
Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com
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