Rivermen stumble at home, lose 3-1

PEORIA, ILL – The Peoria Rivermen and Oklahoma City Barons came into Peoria’s Carver Arena on Saturday night in second and third places, respectively, in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City left with those positions reversed after a 3-1 victory in front of 5980 disappointed fans.
 
Many in the crowd came incognito in anticipation of Hallowe’en. Sporting pink jerseys in support of Breast Cancer Awareness, the Rivermen didn’t look like themselves and didn’t play like it either.
 
The Rivermen jumped out to an early lead less than three minutes into the game. With the Barons Shawn Belle boxed for holding and a broken stick on the ice, the Rivermen pressured the second best penalty kill unit in the league, Chris Porter poked one under the stick of Oklahoma City goaltender Martin Gerber. Adam Cracknell and Phil McRae collected assists. Each team had quality chances during the period, but Porter’s was the lone tally.
 
It was Oklahoma City’s turn to apply pressure in the second period. The Rivermen had to kill off two penalties in quick succession. Then, when Oklahoma City pressure prevented Peoria from getting a full line change, Greg Stewart fed Matt Marquardt with a pass through the crease and Marquadt put it behind Rivermen goalie Ben Bishop to even the score.
 
The scoreboard showed eight shots on goal for the Barons in the second period, but it must have felt like 80 to Bishop. Oklahoma City pressured for much of the 20 minutes, and even when the Rivermen were given a man-advatage, they were able to do very little with it. Momentum certainly shifted to the Barons as the Rivermen were only able to muster a pair of attempts on Gerber for the entire period.
 
With the game knotted at a goal apiece, the third period would be decisive. Sure enough, it was – and early. After pressuring the Oklahoma City goal, play came back the other way. Ryan O’Marra fed Linus Omark, who spun and shot the puck past a surprised Bishop to put the Barons up 2-1.
 
The Rivermen were tasked with a comeback, but it was not to be. League points leader, Graham Mink, was assessed a five-minute major with a little over 13 minutes left to play in the game. On the way to the box, the referee added a Game Misconduct. While the Rivermen went on to kill that major penalty, they never regained momentum. The team pulled Bishop with just over a minute left, but the extra skater didn’t help, to the pointthat they played in front of the empty net for quite some time before Brad Moran slipped the puck into the empty net for the final score.
 
Pink at he Rink: The Peoria Rivermen wore special pink jerseys Saturday night. After the game the jerseys were auctioned to the public with the proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure to aid in the fight against breast cancer.
  Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@prohockeynews.com Photo credit: Chris Loudermilk