PEORIA, IL – The Peoria Rivermen had only lost twice on home ice before this weekend, but dropped two out of three games to the Mississippi Riverkings, including an uninspired 4-2 decision on Sunday afternoon in front of 2912 fans.
Peoria built up a 10-3 SOG advantage early in the first period, but the Riverkings scored on just their fourth shot of the game and dominated play the rest of the night.
It was Sean Jones who had that first goal at 7:38 of the first period. The Riverkings led 1-0 and would for the rest of the game, using a strong forecheck to keep the Rivermen off-balance.
Mike Hayward scored at 3:55 of the second period and Devin Mantha followed at 10:24 to push the margin to 3-0.
Alex Hagaman finally broke through for the Rivermen at 12:41 on a heavy shot from the left face-off dot, but Andrew Randazzo ended the second period with a goal for Mississippi, leaving it at 3-1 while the Zambonis cleared the ice.
It was Garrett Vermeersch from the slot just 2:52 into the third that gave the crowd some hope, but despite picking up their tempo, Peoria would not score again.
Peter DiSalvo took home the win for Mississippi, stopping 33 of 35 shots. Eric Levine stopped 27 of 31 shots in the loss.
Neither team scored on either of their power play opportunities. Each team was awarded two and just six minutes of penalties were called on each team.
Peoria comes back next weekend for another 3 games in three night. They will face the Louisiana Ice Gators Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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