KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Peoria Rivermen broke a second-place tie in the Southern Professional Hockey League standings with a 4-2 win over the Knoxville Ice Bears on Friday night at Knoxville Civic Coliseum.
Jordan Sims cleaned up a rebound of an Alec Hagaman shot on a 2-on-1 break to put the Rivermen on the board first with 7:42 left in the opening period.
The Ice Bears evened the score 2:15 into the middle stanza on a power play rebound tally by Eric Satim assisted by Peter Neal and Ryan Salvis. The Rivermen regained the lead when Steve Morra intercepted a goalie clearance on the left wing and skated in for the score with 6:13 elapsed in the second period. Alec Hagaman built the lead to 3-1 at the 15:06 mark of the second period during 4-on-4 during a 1-on-2 break when he slipped a five-hole shot from the right circle, assisted by Paul Arnott and Dennis Sicard and ending the night for Ice Bears goalie Bryan Hince.
Knoxville cut the Peoria lead to 3-2 with 12:35 left in the third period when Peter Neal grabbed the puck behind the net, took it in front and threaded the needle inside the left post on the stick side. The Rivermen got the goal back with 10:59 showing on the regulation clock when Josh Harris crashed the net for a rebound goal off Morra’s shot off the crossbar, also assisted by Matt Summers, to push the advantage back to 4-2. The Ice Bears emptied the net for the final 70 seconds but could not light the lamp.
Kyle Rank earned the win in the Peoria net with 25 saves while Hince took the loss stopping 16 of the 19 shots he faced. The Rivermen were 0-for-2 on power plays while the Ice Bears were 1-for-4.
The Rivermen improve to 15-6-2 and break the second place tie in the Southern Professional Hockey League standings with the Ice Bears (14-8-2). The Rivermen are now 7-1-0 this season against Knoxville.
You must be logged in to post a comment.