Peoria, IL – You don’t see a lot of instant replay in the SPHL, but Donald Olivieri used it, twice, to great effect on Friday night. Olivieri scored on a long, low shot past screened Riverking goaltender Brad Barone at 8:04 of the second period…and at 17:09 of the same stanza…and again at 4:11 of the third period. It was the same play each time.
That hat trick led the Rivermen to a 4-2 victory over the Mississippi Riverkings in front of 4,112 fans. The win vaulted Peoria over the Riverkings in the standings, moving from 4th place to a tie ties with 2nd place Macon, who was idle.
The two teams traded goals in the first period.
From the corner, Connor Gorman fed Garrett Vermeersh in the slot. Riverking goaltender anticipated the low one-timer but the pass skipped a bit and Vermeersch had to tame it before swatting a high shot to stake the home team to a 1-0 lead at 9:21 of the first period.
Cullen Bradshaw found Mike Moran at the top of the circle as the visitors swarmed Rivermen goalie Storm Phaneuf. Moran found twine at 18:51 of the period and the Zamboni’s came on with the score knotted at one-each.
Ryan Marcuz added a power play goal for visitors at 9:52 of the second period, but it was Olivieri’s show from then on.
THe RIverkings scored both their goals on the power play to go two-for nine. The RIvermen were one-for-six with the man advantage, as their average slowly improves.
Phaneuf, who has proved to be a capable SPHL goalie since returning to the team after being cut early in the season, stopped 31 of 33 shots. Barone stopped 21 of 25 shots in the loss.
The same two teams face off again Saturday night in Peoria.
NOTES: Peoria wore pink jerseys as the team celebrated breast cancer survivors for “Pink at the Rink” night.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com, or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
You must be logged in to post a comment.