EVANSVILLE, IN – The Peoria Rivermen got three goals from rookie winger Stephen Gaul in the first 23:04 of regulation, two more from center Justin Greenberg, and coasted to a 6-1 win over the Evansville Thunderbolts at the Ford Center Saturday night. The win, Peoria’s fifth in a row, improves the Rivermen to 22-3-3 on the season before next weekend’s home pair against the Quad City Storm.
Peoria jumped out to a 3-0 lead in a 2:32 stretch late in the first period, kicked off when Gaul finished a feed from teammate Pijus Rulevicius past Thunderbolts goaltender Braeden Ostepchuk at the 15:00 mark of the opening frame. Greenberg doubled the Rivermen lead a minute later when he took a cross-ice pass from Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman and fired it past Ostepchuk for a 2-0 edge at 16:00 of the period. Gaul raced into the Thunderbolts zone, picked up a loose puck above the left circle, and fired it past Ostepchuk for 3-0 at 17:32 of the frame.
Gaul completed the hat trick at 3:04 of the second period with a snap shot from the Thunderbolts slot, pushing the Rivermen lead to 4-0.
Evansville clambered into the scoring at 5:50 of the middle frame when veteran defenseman Bo Driscoll’s wrister from the left point was deflected by teammate CJ Blaszka, past Rivermen goaltender Ryan Mulder for a 4-1 score.
Peoria put the game out of reach with single goals late in each of the final two periods, when Greenberg deflected Hagaman’s high-slot drive past Ostepchuk at 17:46 of the second and Rivermen forward Beau Walker tipped an Aaron Atwell point shot on the power-play for the 6-1 final at 17:53 of the final stanza.
Mulder earned his second win of the season in net for the Rivermen, steering aside 26 of 27 shots faced to improve his overall SPHL record to 2-1-0 this season. The win Marks Mulder’s second straight win over the Thunderbolts after he was in net for last Saturday’s 7-1 Rivermen victory in Peoria.
Game recap courtesy of official SPHL media release
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