PEORIA, IL – – Kevin Genoe was brilliant and the Huntsville Havoc were lucky.
The Havoc claimed a 3-1 victory on the road in Peoria Saturday night. Genoe earned the first star of the game, stopping 35 of 36 shots, officially. The Havoc also benefitted from a lucky bounce that enabled them to bounce the first place Peoria Rivermen in front of 4409 fans.
Nick Wheeler sniped the Havoc to an early lead by putting a shot into the top right corner of the net, nicking the iron as he set Huntsville ahead 1-0 at 6:07 of the first period. The unassisted goal came on Huntsville’s third shot of the game.
The fourth shot for the Havoc proved fortuitous, as well. Stuart Stefan’s pass hit a shin guard and instead was re-directed into the net. Peoria goalie Kyle Rank could only watch as he was positioned for the expected one-timer instead of the deflection.
The Rivermen finally got on the board during a breakaway in the second period. Garrett Vermeersch broke in and passed across the ice to a streaking Steve Morra who made a nifty little move and buried it past Kevin Genoe. That score at 3:39 of the second period drew the Rivermen within a goal, 2-1
There was a great sequence in the second period when Genoe stopped a point-blank shot on the corner and then, with the net seemingly wide open, was able to knock down the rebound shot with his stick. Oddly, neither shot counted on the scoreboard.
Luke Greiner added an empty net goal with 57 seconds left to finish up the scoring.
Rank falls to 20-7-2 with the loss, stopping 14 of 16 shots. Neither team scored on the power play; Huntsville had four chances and Peoria had five with the man advantage.
NOTE: With less than two minutes to play, Corey Bellamy was ejected from the Hunstville Bench for using a racial slur, according to officials. At press time, the penalty was a 10 Minute Game Misconduct for Inciting Opponent, but is subject to change.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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