Rivermen Drop First-Place Barons 4-2
Opponent: Oklahoma City Barons
Date: March 2, 2012 7:00 p.m.
Score(Home/Away): 4-2 W
The Peoria Rivermen struck first and never looked back as they took down the first-place Oklahoma City Barons on Friday night at Carver Arena. Four Rivermen players had multi-point games, highlighted by Danny Syvret’s three points (one goal, two assists). Jake Allen stopped 27 shots to earn his seventh victory of the year.
The Rivermen picked up their 31st win of the season (31-25-2-1) and their 65th point of the season.
The Rivermen opened up the scoring with a power-play goal at the 6:21 mark of the first. Syvret fired a wrist shot from the point through traffic to beat Yann Danis to the glove side. Jonathan Cheechoo and Brett Sterling both earned assists on Syvret’s fifth goal of the year.
Peoria added another goal at 9:44 of the first period. With the puck in the offensive zone, Syvret made a cross-ice pass right to the tape of Tyler Shattock who one-timed the puck into an open goal to make the score 2-0.
The Barons responded in the second period on Ryan Keller’s 18th goal of the season. Keller jumped on a loose puck in the right circle and roofed it past a sprawled-out Allen at 3:27 of the second period.
The Rivermen scored their second power-play goal of the night just 41 seconds into the third period to take back a two-goal lead. Cheechoo one-timed a Syvret pass into the back of the net for his 18th goal of the season. Oklahoma City forward Mark Arcobello put a rebound in past Allen to make it a one-goal game just 25 seconds later.
With 13:27 remaining in the third, Phil McRae scored his 20th goal of the year to give the Rivermen their fourth goal of the evening. McRae received a pass from Sterling in the slot and took a slap shot that beat the glove of Danis.
Peoria outshot Oklahoma City 35-29. The Rivermen went two-for-five on the man advantage while the Barons failed to score on their only powerplay opportunity.
The Rivermen host the Rockford IceHogs on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will perform and sign autographs during the game. The first 3,500 fans will receive a team poster courtesy of the Air National Guard. The first 1,500 fans 18 or older will receive an Illinois Lottery scratch game. Tickets are available by calling 309-676-1040 or by visiting www.rivermen.net.
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