PEORIA, IL – The Peoria Rivermen used a pair of third-period goals from winger Steve Morra to carry them to a 4-2 victory on their home ice against the Fayetteville FireAntz Friday night. The win, Peoria’s league-record 14th in a row, improves their SPHL league-best point total to 50 with two more games left against Fayetteville in the current home series.
The Rivermen opened the scoring on the powerplay at 3:10 of the first period when Matt Summers cleaned up a rebound and put it past FireAntz goaltender Parker Van Buskirk for the 1-0 lead. The FireAntz evened the game with their own powerplay tally at 13:08 of the first when Josh McQuade beat Kyle Rank to make it 1-1. Peoria retook the lead for good at 18:54 of the first when Connor Toomey ripped a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle past Van Buskirk to make it 2-1 Peoria through one period.
The second period was played without score and the Rivermen added a valuable insurance tally at 3:39 when Steve Morra swatted the rebound of a Ben Oskroba shot home to make it 3-1. Fayetteville got the game back to 3-2 on McQuade’s second goal of the game on a doorstep feed from Derek Elliot. The Rivermen re-upped their lead to two when Morra knocked a Ben Power rebound past Van Buskirk for the eventual 4-2 final score.
Rank stopped 30 of 32 shots he faced to win his league-best 15th game. The win is Rank’s seventh in a row, dating back to a shootout loss December 12, 2015 at home against Mississippi.
Notes: Morra’s multi-goal game is his second of the season and first since January 2 at home against Huntsville, Morra has six points in his last four games and for the season has 10 goals and nine assists in 14 games…The game-winning goal was Morra’s second of the season and his first since January 15 at Huntsville…Summers recorded a point in his third straight game, giving him four points over his last three contests…The Rivermen return to action when they rematch the FireAntz tomorrow night at 7:05 CST from Carver Arena…
Text provided by Peoria Rivermen Media Release
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