PEORIA, IL – The Peoria Rivermen utilized a pair of power-play goals to jump ahead early and held off the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs Sunday for a 4-2 victory at Carver Arena Sunday afternoon. Peoria’s fourth straight win improves them to 34-4-5 overall and 18-0-2 on home ice before next weekend’s three-game home set.
After scoring Saturday’s overtime winner, Rivermen defensemen Guillaume Naud picked up where he left off in the first period Sunday, scoring a power-play goal at the 9:33 mark of the first period. Veteran Rivermen winger Mike Gurtler dropped the puck back to Naud from between the circles and Naud slapped it past Dawgs netminder Jacob Caffrey for his fourth goal of the season, putting the Rivermen ahead 1-0.
Rivermen forward Pijus Rulevicius matched Naud’s power-play effort to double the lead at the 14:15 mark of the second period after redirecting a wrister from teammate Justin Greenberg under Caffrey’s left arm.
The Rivermen were able to kill three penalties in the first 18 minutes of the middle frame before the Dawgs got on the board during a 4-on-4 period. Dawgs winger Colin Murray’s second marker of the weekend came on a snapshot from between the circles, sailing past Rivermen netminder Stephen Klein to make the score 2-1 heading into the final intermission.
Gurtler picked up an insurance tally which wound up being the game-winner at the 13:27 mark of the third period on a breakaway wrister past Caffrey’s glove to make the score 3-1. Rookie winger Mitchell McPherson posted his first professional goal on a one-timer from the right circle with 3:48 to go. Roanoke added a last-minute goal from former Peoria winger Jeff Jones to bring the final tally to 4-2.
Klein earned the win in net, making 17 of 19 saves and keeping Roanoke off the board on all five of their five power plays. The win improves Klein to 18-3-2 on the season, and lifts him to 9-0-2 since the start of 2019.
Notes: Gurtler recorded a goal and an assist for his second straight multi-point performance…Rivermen defenseman Ralfs Grinbergs recorded three assists to set a new career high…Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman recorded an assist on McPherson’s goal to extend his personal point-scoring streak to six games…Greenberg tallied two assists to give him six points in his last four outings.
Game recap courtesy of official SPHL media release
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