PEORIA, ILL – Goaltender Jake Allen started his sixth professional hockey game and came away with his third shut-out on Friday night in front of 4336 fans at Peoria’s Carver Arena. Allen turned away 37 shots to blank the Abbotsford Heat while Adam Cracknell and Phil McRae added goals to complete the 2-0 victory.
After a scoreless first period, Cracknell began the second period by scoring the first goal of the game 55 seconds into the period. Cracknell gathered the puck in front of the crease, and not having a shot, slowly stickhandled toward the right post. Finally spotting an opening, he unleashed a quick wrist shot that snuck under Leland Irving’s glove to break the 0-0 tie.
The rest of the period was high energy and hard hitting with long minutes played in the Abbotsford defensive end, despite three power play chances for the Heat. Abbotsford had its best chance to tie the game when Logan MacMillian was able to come in unchallenged, but Allen made a remarkable save.
The period featured some hard checking, with Peoria’s Dean Arsene and Staphan Della Rovere making several jaw-rattling checks.
Just over eleven minutes into the third period, the Rivermen added another tally, this time on the power play. With Joe Piskula in the box for a crosscheck, McRae took a cross-ice feed from Derek Nesbitt and put it over the stick of Irving for the 2-0 lead.
A spirited third period gave the Heat three separate opportunities with a man advantage, but the Rivermen and Allen would not yield.
The Rivermen, again, gave up more power play opportunities than they got. In fact, the Rivermen only had three power play opportunities all night, and one of those was only 24 seconds long. The Heat, on the other hand, had eight man-advantages, but came away empty handed.
The Heat outshot the Rivermen in every period and ended the game with a 37-27 shot advantage – mostly due to the Heat’s many opportunities with the man advantage.
The Heat will be back again tomorrow night for a re-match, another 7:05pm start. ProHockeyNews.com will be there to bring you the details. Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com
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