Peoria, IL – The Force is strong with Cody Dion.
On Star Wars night, Dion had a trilogy of his own, notching a hat trick and leading the Peoria Rivermen to an epic 5-4 victory as a home crowd of 2895, braving Hoth-like weather, waved their colorful light sabres in celebration.
A power play goal by Josh Elmes opened the scoring at 6:30 of the first period, staking the Thunderbolts to a 1-0 lead. Garrett Vermeersch and Josh Harris, both former Rivermen, were given assists on the play.
Peoria pulled even at 11:54 of the first period when Dion scored on Thunderbolt goalie Michael Doan. Ben Oskroba and Donald Olivieri were credited with assists but it was a real team effort that poured five shots on Doan in less than 90 seconds. Dean Bremner and Jeff Jones were also on the ice.
Another power play, another goal. Evansville ramped up their passing game with a man advantage and it paid off. A loose puck in the slot found it’s was to a spinning Olivieri and it tied the game at two-each at 8:21 of the second period.
Peoria was able to finally pull ahead at 8:04 of the third period during a brief power play when pressure on Doan forced him to the ice. Dion popped the water bottle from the face off dot to make the score 3-2 Peoria. Dave Pszenyczny and Tyler Parks pocketed helpers on the goal that go-ahead goal.
Dion finished the hat trick at 15:22 of the third period with another top shelf goal.
Harris scored with the goalie pulled at 18:24 of the third period but that would be it for the visiting Thunderbolts.
Doan took the loss, dropping his record to 5-3-0 while stopping 41 of 45 shots. The win moved Park’s record to 4-4-3. He had 23 saves on 26 shots.
Evansville was 2-3 on the power play and Peoria was 1-3. Peoria’s lone power play goal ended a stretch of 33 man advantages without a goal.
This was the second win in as many nights for the RIvermen. Like any Star Wars epic, this is a three-parter, with the two teams returning to Evansville on Friday night for a pre-Christmas finale.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com, or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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