PEORIA, IL – The Peoria Rivermen battled back from a 2-0 second-period deficit to beat the Mississippi RiverKings 3-2 in overtime Friday night at Carver Arena. The win improves the Rivermen to 35-12-3 on the season and clinches a second straight SPHL regular-season points title with six games remaining on Peoria’s schedule.
The game was scoreless until Mississippi broke through on the power play at 7:26 of the second period, when a rebound pinballed its way into the slot of the Rivermen zone and was fired by Cullen Bradshaw past Peoria goaltender Kyle Rank to make it 1-0. The RiverKings doubled their lead 1:02 later when Charles Mosey’s pass to the slot was redirected by Ryan Marcuz and past Rank’s pad for a 2-0 Mississippi lead. Peoria cut the Mississippi lead in half with a power-play goal of their own at 17:49 of the second when the puck popped out to Dave Pszenyczny atop the right circle and he fired a slap shot past the blocker of Mississippi goaltender Peter Di Salvo to make it 2-1.
The Rivermen and RiverKings battled with a 2-1 score for most of the third period until Peoria tied it up at 17:14 of the third period. With under three minutes to play in the game, a Psenyczny drive from the left point of the Mississippi zone was redirected by the stick of Ben Power and past Di Salvo to tie the game at two and send it to overtime.
The Rivermen won the game just 44 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime period. The Rivermen entered the zone and Cody Dion, Power, and Pszenyczny passed the puck around in the Mississippi slot and Pszenyczny rifled a wrist shot over a sprawled Di Salvo and into the back of the RiverKings net for the 3-2 win.
Rank saved 27 of 29 shots faced in goal to earn his first win since March 4. The win improves Rank’s league-high win total to 20 for the season.
Official SPHL media release
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