Peoria, IL – Christmas came early for 3374 fans of the Peoria Rivermen on Saturday night.
The Rivermen presented them with a 6-1 victory over the Roanoke Rail Yard Dogs.
After falling 5-1 in embarrassing fashion the night before to the Mississippi Riverkings, the Rivermen scored early and kept the pressure up for 60 minutes, sending the holiday crowd home happy. 
Peoria scored three times during the opening frame.
At 4:30 of the first period, Rivermen Cody Dion scores on a rebound scramble in front of Roanoke goaltender Mat Zenzola. Assisting him were Jordan Carvalho and Alec Hagaman.
The Rivermen scored again when Ryan Siiro’s slow skimmer found twine, with the assist from Will Smith and Ben Oksroba at 10:22.
Zenzola had, moments before, indicated some sort f injury but elected to remain in the game. After the goal, he was replaced by Brad Barone.
Barone was challenged almost immediately. Mike Gurtler made it 3-0 when he came in alone and deked Barone to the ice before unleashing the snap. Another assists from Oskroba.
Roanoke struck back.at 16: 49 in the first period, with the goal from Steve Mele and the assist from David Gandara.
Peoria scored twice in the second period. Connor Gorman and Hagaman both tallied goals but both of these plays were really made by the guys who set them up; Jacob Barber made aa perfect cross-ice pass through traffic to set up Gorman at 7:02 of the second period to make it a 4-1 game. This was a power play goal.
Dion made a nifty backhanded between th legs pass at the blueline that sprug the puck from traffic and cut Hagaman loose to make it 5-1 at 14:12 of the second.
Dave Pszenyczny capped the scoring with a power play goal at 7:37 of the third period. Hagaman and Hurtler assisted, making the tally 6-1.
Zenzola played just over ten minutes, allowing two goals on 13 shots. Barone spelled him the rest of the way in relief, stopping 32 of 36 shots.
Eric Levine pocketed his tenth win, allowing only one goal on 32 shots.
Matt Leon came on in late relief of Levine, stopping both shots he faced in just over five minutes of play.
Roanoke ended the night going 0-7 on the power play, including a 5 minute major penalty.
Peoria, one of the worst PP teams in the league so far this year, scored twice in two opportunities
Sophia Bill contributed to this report. Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com, or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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