PEORIA, IL – – While Central Illinois froze in an arctic blast Thursday night, the Peoria Rivermen were red hot. With 3,991 fans turning out on a frigid weeknight, the Rivermen put up six goals in two periods and burnt the Knoxville Ice Bears 6-3. The win extended the Peoria lead over those same Ice Bears to six points in the standings as the SPHL races towards the end of their regular season.
It was a busy first period and the scoring was started by a thunderous slapshot by Christian Weidauer. His blast from the blueline shoot the net just 4:09 into the opening period to set the Rivermen up with a 1-0 lead.
The Ice Bears tied at 6:58 when a bad pass by Cole Ruwe set up Ryan Slavis, who skated in on Peoria goaltender Kyle Rank for an unassisted shorthanded goal.
It took some smooth moves to put the Rivermen ahead again. Steve Morra put a move on the puck and then put a move on the defenseman. That left Knoxville goalie Bryan Hince alone in the net. Morra put on one more move, skating across the crease and sliding the puck under Hince’s glove to put the Rivermen on top, 2-1, at 13:09 of the first period.
A penalty late in the first period put the Rivermen on the power play. Peoria drew the Knoxville defense to the right and was able to get the puck to Jake Trask, alone at the left face-off dot. His one-timer moved the Rivermen lead to 3-1 with just 25 seconds left to play in the period.
The third period was dominated by the Rivermen.
At 3:29 of the second, Morraskated behind the net, but instead of keeping the puck, dished to Jason Cohen, who one-timed it into the top corner for a 4-1 lead.
Morra would repeat his moves of the first period to stake the Rivermen to a 5-1 lead on a short-handed goal at 10:48 of the second. That chased Hince, who was replaced in the crease by Curtis Martinu.
Dan Bremner would finish the second period scoring with a goal against Martinu at 16:36 of the period, stretching the Peoria lead to 6-1.
The only scoring in the third period came courtesy of Knoxville. First, Eric Satim caught the RIvermen letting down at 2:59 of the third period. That took the score to 6-2
Late in the period, Francis Drolet was awarded a penalty shot. He made as if to cross the goal mouth but stopped shot and brought the puck in behind Rank to bring the score to 6-3.
Kyle Rank leveled up with his 22nd win. He stopped 29 of 32 shots on the night. The loss belonged to Hince, who stopped 20 of 25 shots. Martinu turned in a respectable night, stopping 23 of 24 shots in relief.
Peoria scored once on the powerplay. They had five man-advantages on the night. Knoxville did not score on any of their three powerplays. Each team scored a short-handed goal.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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