Hamilton’s game-winner lifts Peoria to 15th win in 17 home games
Peoria, IL – The Peoria Rivermen scored twice in each of the final two periods and held the Macon Mayhem to 15 shots on goal en route to a 4-1 victory at Carver Arena Saturday night. The win, Peoria’s first in their last three games, improves the Rivermen to 31-4-5 on the season and clinches a berth in the President’s Cup Playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
The Rivermen started the scoring 14:09 into the second period when Peoria converted a power play. Rivermen defenseman Ralfs Grinbergs took a feed from teammate Ben Blasko, and rifled a one-timer from between the circles past Macon netminder Ian Sylves for a 1-0 lead.
Peoria doubled their advantage with just under a minute to go in the middle stanza. Rivermen winger Beau Walker threw the puck to teammate Jake Hamilton deep in the Macon zone,and Hamilton carried behind the net, and powered a wraparound through Sylves for a 2-0 lead at 19:13 of the period.
Peoria continued to build their lead with another power-play tally early in the third period of play. With Mayhem defenseman Nick Minerva boxed for slashing Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman’s one-timer from the right circle zipped past Sylves’ glove and into the net for a 3-0 lead at 4:22 of the frame.
Macon center John Siemer put his team on the board at the 10:29 mark of the third with a power-play goal. Following a neutral-zone faceoff, Siemer lofted the puck from just above the right side of the Rivermen zone and the puck bounded on net and past Rivermen goaltender Storm Phaneuf for a 3-1 score. The Rivermen iced the game with an empty-net marker in the final two minutes of regulation. With Sylves off for an extra Mayhem attacker, Rivermen center Justin Greenberg fought the puck ahead to the Macon blueline and slid it into the empty net at 18:46 of the third period.
Phaneuf earned the win in net, stopping 14 of 15 Mayhem shots faced, improving to 11-1-1 on the season. Phaneuf earned his third win in as many outings against the Mayhem this season and notched his first victory since February 2 at Macon.
Notes: Hamilton netted his first career game-winning goal…Blasko logged an assist on Grinbergs’ goal to improve his league-best point streak to 17 games…Rivermen defenseman Kevin Patterson logged an assist on Grinbergs’ goal to give him six points in his last five game.
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