The Peoria Rivermen lit up the Knoxville Ice Bears and slid into a decisive first game victory. Racking up a massive 48 shots on goal, the Rivermen played the entire game in the Ice Bears’ zone.
The Rivermen offense took control of the game in the first period when they struck three times for a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
An action packed first period kept the shots even but the goals tilted.
The Rivermen came out fired up with a goal only a minute and a half into the game. Â Connor Gorman threw a chance shot to the net hoping for a rebound. A rebound is exactly what the he got. Michael Colantone was ready and tipped the puck past Greg Dodds for the first tally of the game.
The Ice Bears struck back six minutes later for their first goal of the night. A D-to-D pass on the blue line from Robbie Donahoe gave the shooter, Danny Cesarz, some time to scan the situation and take his shot. An Ice Bears screen in front of Storm Phaneuf disallowed him from ever seeing the puck at all.
The announcer wasn’t even done calling out the Ice Bear’s goal before a swift Rivermen response gave them the lead once more! Alec Hagaman threw a quick pass to Justin Hoomaian. Hoomaian slipped past the Ice Bear’s defense and slid it straight through the five hole of Ice Bear’s goaltender Dodds.
Hoomaian and Hagaman decided they weren’t finished for the period.
A pass from the corner by Brandon Greenside made its way to the front of the net where Hoomaian was camping out. Hoomaian teed the puck up high and saucered the puck right over Dodds pads for his second goal of the night. Hagaman also got his second assist for the night on the play.
If Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel told his team anything during the first period intermission, it was about shots. The Peoria Rivermen more than tripled their shot total from 10 shots in the first period to a whopping 36 shots at the end of the second period. Despite so many shots, Dodds was able to stop every single one of the 26 shots taken at him. No goals were scored by either team in the second period.
Another relatively quiet period concludes the first game of this first round series. The only tally of the third period was by Hagaman for his third point of the game. Dan Bremner received a pass and took the puck right to the side of the net. Instead of going around, he sent a beautiful back hand pass to Hagaman who was speeding up through the slot. He ripped a shot past Dodds for the final Rivermen goal of the night and a 4-1 final score.
The Rivermen will try to end the series once and for all in Knoxville this Friday the 14th
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