PENSACOLA, FL – The Peoria Rivermen and Pensacola Ice Flyers battled to a 3-3 tie score through two before the Ice Flyers notched three third-period goals to hand the Rivermen their third straight loss on Sunday, 6-3. The loss drops the Rivermen to 34-12-3, 1 point ahead of Pensacola and Mississippi with seven games remaining in the regular season.
The Ice Flyers opened the scoring with a power-play goal early in the first period. With 31 seconds left on a hooking penalty against Peoria’s Michael Beaudry, Rivermen defenseman Dave Pszenyczny was whistled for roughing. At 6:13 of the first, Stephen Buco wound up from the slot and fired one past Peoria goalie David Jacobson to make it 1-0.
The Rivermen fought back and took the lead late in the first. At the 16:41 mark of the first, Walker Wintoneak came up with a loose puck, battled down to the inside of the left circle, and put a wrist shot past Pensacola goaltender John McLean to tie the game at one. Peoria took the lead at 19:08 of the first when Wintoneak planted himself in the low slot and slid a feed from Adam Stuart under the pad of McLean to make it 2-1.
The Ice Flyers retook the lead in the middle portion of the second period. After tying the game at 11:18 on Corey Banfield’s one-timer from the left circle, Pensacola scored again just 23 seconds later. With the puck bouncing in the Peoria zone, Josh Cousineau settled it down and fired past Jacobson to make it 3-2.
The Rivermen tied the game with a power-play tally at 13:46 of the second period. After Banfield went to the sin bin for cross checking, Brandon Greenside carried out of his own zone, through neutral ice, and down to the left circle of the Pensacola zone. Greenside’s top-shelf wrister sailed over McLean’s shoulder and under the crossbar to send the game to the second intermission tied at three.
The Ice Flyers retook the lead for good just eight seconds into the third period. With Adam Stuart in the penalty box for a slash at the end of the second, Adam Pawlick and Joe Caveny entered the Peoria zone and Pawlick converted to make it 4-3. At 16:45 of the third the Ice Flyers cycled the puck to the right point of the Rivermen zone, and Adam Pawlick’s drive to the slot was redirected into the net by Banfield to make it a 5-3 game. An empty-net goal from Buco with 53 seconds left gave Pensacola the eventual 6-3 final score.
Jacobson stopped 33 of 38 shots faced in goal as he took his second straight loss between the pipes. The loss drops Jacobson to 11-8-0 on the season, 11-4-0 since joining the Rivermen.
Notes: The loss marks the first time Peoria has lost more than two games in a row all season…Wintoneak’s two-goal performance is the second of the season and first multi-goal game since January 31 against Fayetteville…Greenside scored his first goal since February 6 at Fayetteville…The Rivermen return to action next Friday night when they return home to host the Mississippi RiverKings at 7:05
Text provided by official SPHL media release
Follow us on Twitter @ProHockeyNews
You must be logged in to post a comment.