HOUSTON, Texas – The Peoria Rivermen, who said they were embarrassed by their play in Wednesday’s series opening loss to the Houston Aeros, have nothing to hang their heads about after Friday’s rematch. Despite the 3-2 OT loss to go down 2-0 in the series, Peoria played like the team the Aeros were expecting. “It was exactly what we expected it to be. A real tight-checking, close game, hard fought by both teams,” said Aeros coach Mike Yeo. “I thought Peoria gave us what we could handle tonight. They played a great game, they’re physical, they’re aggressive. They had some good chances and I thought (goalie Matt Hackett) Hack had to play great for us in order to give us that chance to win.” Not only did Peoria enter the game with something to prove, they had to do it without two important puzzle pieces due to injury during game one.
Veteran defenseman Tyson Strachan is out for a month with a shoulder injury, and rookie winger Stefan Della Rovere is day to day with a lower body injury. Though the Aeros wanted to keep the demoralization from Wednesday going with an early goal, Peoria scored first at 10:10 with a goal by Anthony Peluso that knuckled past Hackett. Daryl Boyle had the lone assist. Just 14 seconds later, however, Jared Palmer picked off a turnover by the Rivermen net and used a Peoria defender to screen goalie Jake Allen and tie the game. Second period scoring was driven by the man-advantage, with Peoria’s Adam Cracknell scoring a power play goal at 7:12 off a nice set up by Derek Nesbit and Derek Peltier around the Aeros’ net. But once again, the Aeros came back quickly as Chad Rau knotted it up a minute and a half later, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Patrick O’Sullivan over Allen. “I think [answering goals quickly] gives you confidence going forward, certainly, that if you get down, that you can fight through it and you can battle back,” said Yeo. “And you can feel it on the bench, if they score first, there’s not a sense of panic on the bench, or you don’t see guys go out the next shift and start to stray and get away from the system. They just go right back to work.” The third period featured a game’s worth of missed opportunities by both teams.
Between sloppy passing, bouncing pucks, and a rash of broken sticks, neither team was able to pull ahead, despite Houston doubling up Peoria in shots. Before Friday, Peoria was 0-3 in overtime playoff games against Houston and that statistic fell even further as Carson McMillan broke in 2-on-1 with Palmer and scored the winner on a scrambling give-and-go. “Teams forget about me a lot. I’m more of a grinder player, defensive, penalty kill kinda guy,” said McMillan. “When I get a goal it’s great for me, but to help out the team is number one.” The teams head to Peoria where they’ll play three games in three days (if game 5 is necessary) starting Monday.
Contact Heather.Galindo@prohockeynews.com
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