Peoria, IL – The Peoria Rivermen netted four goals in the first 12:39 of the first period, added another tally 6:09 into the second, and coasted to a 7-1 victory over the Evansville Thunderbolts in Peoria Saturday night. The win, Peoria’s second in as many nights, keeps the Rivermen in sole possession of first place before tomorrow’s weekend finale against the Huntsville Havoc at Carver Arena.
Peoria started the scoring 38 seconds into the game when veteran winger Mike Gurtler finished a Nick Neville shot that had trickled through Thunderbolts goaltender Aaron Taylor. Peoria tacked on a pair of goals 14 seconds apart beginning at 8:57 of the frame when the Rivermen worked the puck to veteran center Dean Yakura above the crease, and his stuff beat Taylor for a 2-0 edge. Rookie winger/center Ben Blasko snapped a wrister from the right circle of the Thunderbolts zone at 9:11 for a 3-0 Rivermen lead. Rivermen defenseman Nick Neville’s drive from the high slot on the power-play chased Taylor from the contest at 12:39 of the first, bringing Evansville backup Braeden Ostepchuk into the game.
The teams split goals in the second period when Peoria’s Justin Greenberg finished an Alec Hagaman pass over Ostepchuk’s shoulder at 6:09 of the second before Evansville winger Scott Donahue’s drive from the left circle of the Rivermen zone zipped past Peoria netminder Ryan Mulder for a 5-1 score at 17:06 of the second. Peoria tacked on a pair of tallies in the final 6:31 of the third period on Ben Oskroba’s power-play snap at 13:29 and Austin Vieth’s redirect at 15:20 for the 7-1 final score. Mulder earned his second win in as many SPHL appearances this season, stopping 15 of 16 shots faced to improve to 1-1-0 after he took a loss last weekend as a member of the Quad City Storm. Peoria allowed only two shots on goal in the third period after yielding 14 over the first 40 minutes.
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