Rivermen wait until late in game to rally, defeat Thunderbolts in OT, 4-3

Peoria, IL – – The keys to winning a hockey game are often pretty basic.

Win the battles in the corners.

Stay out of the penalty box.

Put shots on the net. Snag those rebounds.

The Peoria Rivermen did all that Friday night but couldn’t seem to catch a break.

They even held visiting Evansville without a shot for long periods of time (10 minutes in the first period and 16+ in the third).

Still, they found themselves behind 3-2 deep in the third period.

With the goaltender pulled, Will Smith tipped a shot by Alec Hagaman with just 27 second left to send the game into sudden death overtime.

As each team put pressure on the other in overtime, Mike Gurtler’s pass to the corner of the crease was one-timed by Dave Pszenyczny and sent 4298 fans into a frenzy as the Peoria Rivermen defeated the Evansville Thunderbolts 4-3 in dramatic, comeback fashion.

It seemed Peoria would dominate the game from the outset. With time expiring on their first power play of the night, Will Smith shoveled a pass from the side of the crease right to the bottom of the slot where Ryan Siiro was able to beat a sliding Tomas Sholl for the tally. Officially it was a PP goal, but Jacob Barber was in the neutral zone, skating off with an injury.

This opened the scoring at  6:55 of the first. After being held without a shot for the first 10 minutes of the game, Evansville was looking to break out in the second period.

They did so in a big way.

At 2:12 of the second period, during a brief power play, Mark Petaccia came out of the penalty box and took a feed from Tyler Vankleef to even the game at a goal apiece.

Dave Williams followed suit 78 seconds later. This time it was Cory Melkart with the assist, giving the Thunderbolts a 2-1 lead.

At that point, Rivermen goaltender Matt Leon was replaced by Tyler Parks. Parks had just arrived in Peoria earlier in the day, having been release by the ECHL Reading Royals on Thursday.

Peoria pressured Sholl hard during the second period but could not score. Dylan CLarke, however, broke in alone on Parks late in the period and easily beat him, stick-side, to stake Evansville to a 3-1 lead at 18:12 of the second period.

The Rivermen were playing hard and not finding much luck until Brandon Rumble corralled the puck behind the net. Hagaman took a feed from Ruble and skated left-to-right as Sholl tried to follow.

Hagaman reached out and tapped the puck past School to close the gap to 3-2 at 4:48 of the third period. Sholl was absolutely magnificent, stopping 44 of 48 shots and keeping his team in the game all night. Still, he took the loss.

Leon started for Peoria and lasted 23:24, allowing two goals on nine shots. Parks pocketed he win in his return to the SPHL, stopping eight of nine shots on goal. Peoria scored once on four power plays. Evansville had three opportunities and scored once, as well.

. Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twtter @SLBatPHN.