Career-high five-point night from Greenside help Rivermen to fifth straight
Peoria, IL – The Peoria Rivermen scored five goals in the second period as they wrapped up their season series with a 7-2 win over the Evansville Thunderbolts Sunday evening. The win, Peoria’s fifth straight, improves the Rivermen to 23-10-9 on the season ahead of a three-game home weekend with Roanoke.
It took the Rivermen less than two minutes to light the lamp in the opening period. Rivermen winger Dakota Klecha fed a pass to Peoria defenseman Brandon Greenside along the right-wing boards in the offensive zone. Greenside received the puck, walked to the high slot and snapped a wrister that beat Thunderbolts goaltender Michael Doan at 1:54 for a 1-0 lead.
The Rivermen doubled their lead in the closing seconds of the first period. With Greenside carrying the puck into the left circle, he fired a shot on goal. Doan made the initial save, but spit out a rebound. The puck skipped around to the right of the crease, and from a heap of bodies Rivermen winger Connor Gorman slipped the puck past an outstretched Doan at 19:52, and a 2-0 Rivermen advantage through one period.
The Rivermen added to their lead on a five-minute power play early in the second period. After Evansville defenseman Cory Melkert was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for charging, Rivermen center Garrett Vermeersch took a shot from the right circle. Doan deflected the shot right to Rivermen winger Cody Dion, who snapped the puck past Doan’s blocker at 3:24 for a 3-0 Rivermen lead. The Rivermen added another tally at 6:18 when Justin Hoomaian and Jeff Jones raced into the offensive zone. Jones slipped a pass from the left wing across the slot to Hoomaian, who deflected the puck past Doan’s glove for a 4-0 Rivermen lead.
The Thunderbolts got on the board at 8:23 of the middle frame. Evansville defenseman Bo Driscoll put a pass towards the low slot, where Evansville winger Al Graves, who snapped the puck past goaltender Rivermen goaltender Tyler Parks to cut into the Rivermen lead 4-1.
Peoria added three more goals in the remainder of the second period. Dion picked up a loose puck in the left corner threw it to the front of the net, where it got tangled in Doan’s feet and trickled just past the goal line for a 5-1 lead. Peoria made it 6-1 when winger Alec Hagaman sniped past Doan from atop the right circle for a power-play goal at 13:10 of the period. The Rivermen scored their final goal of the period at 16:49. Rivermen center Michael Colantone put a shot on goal that was stopped by new Thunderbolts goaltender Tanner Milliron, but the rebound found Gorman, who shoveled the puck into an empty net for a 7-1 advantage. The Thunderbolts added a lone goal from winger Dave Williams at 16:59 of the third for the eventual 7-2 final score.
Parks stopped 26 of 28 shots faced in his first SPHL action since January. With the win, Parks improves to 6-4-4 on the season, and the victory is his first since a 5-4 triumph against Macon on January 14th.
Notes: Greenside set new career highs in points with 5, and assists with 4…The Rivermen had 7 players register a multi-point game….For the second straight game, Gorman had two goals against Evansville…In the three game weekend series, Peoria outscored Evansville 15-4….The Rivermen return to action Friday night when they welcome the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs to Carver Arena for the first time ever to play the first of a three-game, three-night series…March 3rd is Rivermen T-shirt giveaway night for the first 1,000 fans, presented by Western Illinois University….Friday’s game starts at 7:05 Central Time…The broadcast of the game can be heard, starting with the pre-game show, at 6:45 p.m.
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