Peoria, IL – – …and these two teams play each other twice more this weekend.
The Peoria Rivermen defeated the Evansville Thunderbolts 6-3 Friday in Peoria in front of 4,181 fans on Faith and Family night. Nobody wanted to turn the other cheek, though.
Two game misconducts, six fighting majors, and a half-dozen roughing penalties combined with nine goals meant plenty of excitement, but it was a poorly officiated game that left many scratching their heads. 
Of course, there was a lot of scoring. Mike Economos scored unassisted and Justing Greenberg had a shorthanded goal to stake the Peoria Rivermen to a 2-0 lead before the game was even fine minutes old.
Connor Gorman scored on a turnover in the offensive zone to stretch that to 3-0 early in the second period.
Evansville responded twice – first on a power play goal by Dave Williams and then on an odd-man break-away by John Scorcia, bringing the score to 3-2.
Economos answered almost immediately to set the score at 4-2.
The Thunderbolts pulled within one, again, early in the third period when Chase Nieuwendyk banked one in off the iron behind Peoria goaltender Tyler Parks.
Alec Hagaman answered with a goal of his own over the shoulder of Jonah Imoo, the Evansville netminder.Ryan Siiro added an empty net score to make the final 6-3.
Imoo allowed five goals on 37 shots in the loss. Parks is proving to be a premier goalie in this league. stopping 30 of 33 shots in the win and stopping several breakaways. His record moves to 9-3-0.
Both teams scored once on the special teams, with Evansville scoring once in four attempts while Peoria ent oh-for-three and scoring shorthanded.
These two teams face off again Saturday night in Evansville and then back in Peoria for a matinee on Sunday.
Editorial: Referee Steven Sailor as often out of position and made some very curious calls. One two separate occasions, fighting major penalties were called against just tne player, begging the question “Who was he fighting, then?” He was very slow to get back and was often two and sometimes three lines away from the puck and the action.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twtter @SLBatPHN.
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