The Peoria Rivermen’s season-long four-game winning streak came to a close on Friday night when they fell to the Grand Rapids Griffins, 4-1, at Van Andel Arena. The Griffins used a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal to take and early lead and pulled ahead to a 4-0 advantage before Jonas Junland stopped Jimmy Howard’s shutout bid late in the third period.
The loss evened Peoria’s record against Grand Rapids this season to 2-2-0 with a rematch scheduled for Saturday night. They will also end the regular season against one another on April 11 at Carver Arena.
Manny Legace suffered the loss after stopping 31 of the 35 shots sent his way. He is now 5-6-0 since joining the Rivermen from St. Louis. Howard’s 24 save performance was good enough for the victory, in his first game back since Feb. 27 when he was sidelined with a concussion.
A high-sticking penalty against Julian Talbot set the stage for the Griffins first goal inside the final two minutes of the first period. It was just 23 seconds into their second power-play when Garrett Stafford slapped a shot past Legace from just inside the blue line. It was the defenseman’s 11th goal of the season.
Peoria’s only power play of the game lead to a 2-0 lead for the Griffins as Aaron Gagnon notched his seventh of the year at 6:37 of the second. Darren McCarty expanded the Grand Rapids lead to 3-0 on a breakaway at 18:56.
Junland’s goal came 1:29 after Justin Abdelkader made it 4-0 on the rookie’s 22nd goal of the year. McCarty’s one-time was deflected by Abdelkader on it’s way into an open net.
The only Rivermen goal came at 10:40 of the third as Junland backhanded home a bouncing puck after Howard sprawled out across the net, trying to make the initial save. Curtis Fraser and Ryan Reaves were credited with assists for their shots on goal.
Junland now has 11 goals on the season and four of them have come in his four games against Grand Rapids.
The Rivermen and Griffins face off at 6 p.m. CDT from Van Andel Arena on Saturday. The game will have a live radio broadcast available on Hippie 101.1FM as well as
www.rivermen.net.
The Rivermen return home to take on the Quad City Flames on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. It is the final Comcast/Journal Star/Fun on the Run/Coke Family Day of the season. Tickets for children 12 and under will be available for just $1 at the box office. From 2-3p.m. in the Great Hall there will be free balloon animals, face painting and inflatable games and inside the arena, hot dogs, cokes and chips will be available for $1 each. Following the game, kids will have the opportunity to skate with the team. Tickets are available at the Peoria Civic Center box office, by calling (309) 673-3200 or online at www.rivermen.net/tickets. 
