PEORIA, IL – The Peoria Rivermen came from behind twice to beat the Knoxville Ice Bears 3-2 in overtime at the Peoria Civic Center on Saturday night in front of 3,798 fans.
Knoxville drew first blood at 6:12 of the first period, when Todd Hosmer slipped the puck behind Peoria netminder Kyle Rank during a 5-on-3 powerplay. Corey Hale and Jason price assisted on the goal, the first Ice Bear SOG of the game.
After being held without a shot on their first power play opportunity, Peoria drew even at 
18:26 of the first period when good hustle lead to a goal. Francis Meilleur shoveled the puck to Jake Trask behind the net. Trask passed it off to Mike Gurtler who sent the puck back to Trask, this time in front of the net. Trask buried it as Knoxville goalie Braely Torris could not cover both corners.
Zack LaRue gave the Ice Bears the lead back at 5:30 of the second period on an unassisted shorthanded goal.
The Rivermen again answered at 9:34 of the second period. With Brandon Greenside grinding in the corner, Alex Hagaman took the puck behind the net and into the far circle. He roofed a shot just inside the crossbar to tie the game at 2.
After a scoreless third period, Peoria defenseman Mike Slowikowski took the puck into the slot, drawing the defense and Torris. He then backhanded a pass back through the slot to Garrett Vermeersch, who filled the empty net at 1:16 in overtime.
Torris was the hard luck loser, stopping 35 of 38 shots on goal. Rank picked up the win, improving his record to 3-2-0, stopping 28 of 30 shots.
Peoria, whose power play has been dismal so far this season, was scoreless in two chances and allowed the shortie. Knoxville capitlaized on their only chance with a man advantage.
Special thanks to Christopher Bill for contribution
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com, or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN.
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