PHN’S Best Shots of the Game: Rivermen get 31 saves from Rank, goals from five different skaters

Peoria, IL – The Peoria Rivermen took a 3-0 lead in the first period and maintained that lead throughout the night, eventually beating the Mississippi RiverKings 5-2 at Carver Arena Friday night. The win, Peoria’s first since December 3, improves the Rivermen to 10-5-1 on the season with one game left in the current home series with Mississippi.

The Rivermen got on the board first at the 7:51 mark of the first period when Garrett Vermeersch split the RiverKings defense and flipped a backhand off the glove of Mississippi goaltender Dalton McGrath and into the net for a 1-0 lead. The Rivermen doubled their lead 13:45 into the first when Adam Stuart blasted a feed from Chris Wilson past McGrath for the 2-0 lead.

The Rivermen made it 3-0 at 16:16 of the first when a shot from the point by Mark Corbett was redirected in front by Peoria captain Dan Bremner and past McGrath to make it 3-0 Rivermen. Mississippi got on the board with 2.4 seconds left in the first as Devin Mantha came away with a breakaway and put it over the pad of Rivermen goalie Kyle Rank to make the score 3-1 through one period.

Peoria pushed their lead back to three at 2:23 of the second stanza when Chris Wilson got a shorthanded break and put a backhander past McGrath to make it 4-1. The RiverKings scored again at 7:13 of the second frame when Michael Beaudry got the puck past Rank with an assist from Dean Willmott for the 4-2 score. The Rivermen got the lead back up to three at 17:17 of the third when Matt Summers put the rebound of a Christian Weidauer drive past McGrath for the 5-2 Peoria lead.

Rank stopped 31 of 33 shots he faced in net to get the victory. With the win, he improves to 8-3-1 on the season, and 1-2-0 against the RiverKings.

Notes: Summers scored a goal in his third straight game, giving him four overall points in his last three contests…Wilson scored Peoria’s third short-handed goal of the season while Peoria has allowed four short-handed markers against…Wilson has six goals and two assists in six games for the Rivermen since coming over from Louisiana in a late November trade…Jake Trask is without a point in his last nine games after posting three goals and three assists in the season’s first seven contests…Five goals scored by Peoria set a new season-high and tie a Mississippi season-high for goals against, previously set in a 6-5 RiverKings victory at Huntsville on November 24.