PEORIA, IL – Historically, the Louisiana Ice Gators and Peoria Rivermen love a big crowd and overtime.
With the supersized image of Jason Christie hoisting the 2000 ECHL Kelly Cup – won in dramatic overtime fashion over the Ice Gators – overlooking the ice and the largest crowd to date this season for Peoria in the stands, the Ice Gators and Rivermen, now members of the SPHL, played a back-and-forth game that took extra time to finish.
The Rivermen started quick with a goal. Two fights ignited the crowd of 5681 and then the Ice Gators came storming back with three unanswered goals of their own. The third period would belong to the Rivermen and the victor was still undetermined after sixty minutes of play.
That’s some exciting hockey, and the Rivermen wound up on top, 4-3.
Josh Harris one-timed a Mike Gurtler feed just forty seconds into the game to open the scoring. Ben Oskroba had the initial shot and Harris was open on the doorstep and beat Louisiana goalie Marco DiFillippo to the puck and put the high shot into the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Ice Gators would get it back, though. Bret Peppler snagged a turnover in the neutral zone, skated into the zone and unleashed a slapshot from the top of the near circle that surprised Rivermen netminder Eric Levine. The unassisted goal tied the game at one at 16:48 of the period.
Jake Hauswirth unleashed a shot from the far face-off circle that Levine stopped. August Aiken was there on the corner and put the rebound back to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at 11:50 of the second period.
Levine was chased less than two minutes later after he allowed a low shot from the far face-off dot to slide in. Bobby Watson was not screened, but his goal at 13:52 gave the Ice Gators a 3-1 lead.
Dan Bremner was everywhere in the third period. Just after a penalty expired, he was prone on the ice behind the net. He still managed to get a pass off to Alex Hudson. Hudson buried that pass to pull the Rivermen within a goal, 3-2, just 25 seconds into the third period.
Louisiana clung to that one-goal lead for sixteen minutes until a penalty gave the Rivermen an opening. Josh Harris put a shot on net with 15 seconds left in the penalty. DeFillippo made the stop, but Hudson and Jake Trask were waiting and the loose puck caused a scramble. The puck slid left and just over the goal line for the tying goal at 18:19 of the third period.
Overtime was a back and forth affair until Garrett Vermeersch snagged a turnover in the neutral zone and raced in alone on DiFillippo. His backhanded flip lit the lamp and the RIvermen bench emptied as they mobbed him at center ice.
Levine did not factor in the decision and stopped 12 of 15 shots during his 33:52 before being lifted for Rank. Rank pocketed the win for blanking the Ice Gators for 28:50, stopping all eight shots he faced. DeFillippo had 31 saves on 35 shots in the overtime loss.
Louisiana went 0-3 on the power play while Peoria was 1-4.
Robert Vanwynsberghe
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN .
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