PEORIA – The Peoria Rivermen captured their fourth straight win to stay in a tie for the Southern Professional Hockey League lead with a 4-1 victory over the Huntsville Havoc on Friday night at Carver Arena.
The Rivermen opened the game with a goal coming at 10:10 in the first period on a shot by Jordan Sims assisted by Garrett Vermeersch. Nearly six minutes later, Matt Summers was set up by Alex Hudson from behind the net also assisted by Dan Bremner to score front and center leaving the period 2-0 Rivermen. 
Huntsville shortened the gap with a goal at 11:30 into the second scored by Matt Viola making it 2-1 taking it to the end of the second period.
With a chaotic scramble in front of the net at 9:59 into the third, Alec Hagaman raked the puck behind Havoc goalie Jesse Kallechy during a flurry in the crease for his 10th goal of the year with assists by Sims and Bremner.
The final Rivermen tally was registered with 1:15 remaining when Ben Oskroba snuck behind the defense and scored on a back-door feed at the left post from Josh Harris also assisted by Summers.
Kyle Rank picked up his league-leading 19th win by making 19 saves while Kallechy took the loss with 27 stops. The Rivermen were 1-for-7 on power plays while the Havoc did not score in three opportunities.
The Rivermen (23-11-3, 49 points) stay in a first-place tie with the Knoxville Ice Bears, who beat Columbus 2-1 in a shootout on Friday. The Havoc (5-24-5, 15 points) remain in eighth place and are 0-9-1 in their last 10 games.
(Story by Jenny Dziedzic)
You must be logged in to post a comment.