HUNTSVILLE, AL – The Peoria Rivermen saw a late three-goal lead shrink to one in an 11-second span but held on to beat the Huntsville Havoc 5-4 in regulation Saturday. The win, Peoria second straight and fourth in five games, improved the Rivermen to 6-3-1 on the season with one game remaining on the current road trip.
The Rivermen opened the scoring with a short-handed goal early in the first period. With Donald Olivieri in the sin bin for slashing, Rivermen forward Terrence Wallin shoveled a pass out of the Peoria zone to neutral ice. Rivermen winger Alec Hagaman picked the puck up in the neutral zone and cruised into the left-wing circle of the Havoc zone, where he ripped a wrister through Huntsville goaltender Adam Courchaine to make it 1-0.
Peoria doubled their lead 55 seconds later. After a Justin Hoomaian shot was denied by Courchaine’s right pad, Peoria winger Connor Gorman pounced on the rebound and fired it past the Havoc netminder for a 2-0 score.
The Havoc tied the game with a quick pair of goals early in the second period. After a scrum atop the Peoria crease, Lou Educate took the puck and flicked it past Peoria goaltender Tyler Parks to cut the Rivermen lead in half. Huntsville tied the game 2-2 just 50 seconds later when Havoc winger Michael Piluso carried the puck out of the left corner and beat parks from the low left circle to make it 2-2.
Peoria re-took their two-goal lead in the middle phases of the second period. At the 7:59 mark of the period, a battle above the Huntsville crease ended when Peoria center Jake Hauswirth popped the puck under Courchaine’s pad to make it 3-2. Peoria doubled their lead after Dakota Klecha rushed into the Havoc zone, came to a stop at the edge of the Huntsville crease, and beat Courchaine to make it 4-2.
Klecha’s goal chased Courchaine from the contest in favor of Tyler Steel, and the Rivermen lead swelled to 5-2 early in the third. With play in the Havoc zone, Klecha took the puck horizontally through the right circle and danced into the slot before he tucked the puck under the cross bar and past Steel to make it 5-2.
Huntsville made a late comeback attempt, scoring two goals in the final three minutes of regulation. After a Huntsville tripping penalty against Piluso at 15:59 of the third, Peoria winger Alec Hagaman fought Rob Simpson of Huntsville at 16:05. Hagaman was assessed an additional instigator minor, making the game 4-on-4. After Huntsville pulled their goaltender to take a 5-on-4 advantage, the Havoc scored at 17:26 when Tyler French entered the Peoria zone and fed Educate on the back door to make it 5-3. The Havoc got a goal just 11 seconds later when Scott Fellnermayr took the puck from behind the Peoria net and skated out to the right circle, where he put as shot inside the far post past Parks to make the score 5-4 at 17:37 of the third.
The score held at 5-4 for the remainder of the game, with Parks holding on to earn his first professional win. The rookie stopped 33 of 37 shots faced in his Rivermen debu
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