Rivermen Give Storm the Sunday Scaries in 8-2 Rout
October 29, 2023 - 05:35 pm
MOLINE, IL – The Rivermen gave the Quad City Storm a good fright on Sunday afternoon ahead of Halloween as they defeated the Storm 8-2 to improve to a perfect 3-0-0 on the young season. Peoria out-scored opponents this past weekend 14-3.
Peoria started fast in the first period as Ryan Nolan was the recipient of a nice pass in the right-wing corner from Joseph Widmar and with time and space Nolan made no mistake firing a wrist shot blocker side past Kevin Resop and for the second straight night, Nolan had the Rivermen up 1-0 in the first period. Peoria added on another goal in the last minute of the first period saw Widmar digging for a loose puck in the crease. Widmar found the puck and quickly lifted it into the back of the net. Widmar’s second point of the night had Peoria cruising 2-0 through 20 minutes.
The second period was all Rivermen as Quad City had difficulty moving past the Rivermen defense and getting scoring opportunities. Peoria limited the Storm to just 11 shots in the first two periods, a continuation of their dominating efforts against Evansville on Friday. That solid defense led to the offense as Mike Gelatt skated up the ice with Alec Hagaman on a two-on-one rush. Hagaman, with the puck on the right side, sent a picture-perfect pass to Gelatt who roofed his shot into the top shelf past Resop to extend the Rivermen lead to 3-0. It was Hagaman’s first assist of the season and second straight point since returning to the lineup. It wasn’t his last. Hagaman again facilitated scoring offense as he fired a shot in on goal as he stepped up over the offensive blue line. The shot produced a rebound off of the blocker right to Tristan Trudel who had two cracks at the puck. The first was saved by the pad but the second found the back of the net as Trudel continued his prolific scoring weekend with his third goal in two games to extend Peoria’s lead to 4-0.
The third period was a scoring fest as the Rivermen quickly added two goals by Alec Hagaman and Mike Gelatt to put the Rivermen up 6-0. A sustained push by Quad City later in the period resulted in two goals to cut into the Rivermen lead, but Peoria gave up nothing more and instead went back on the attack. Jordan Ernst and Ryan Nolan netted their second and third goals of the season in the late stages of the contest to add the exclamation point to the contest as Peora improved to 3-0 in the young season.
The Rivermen will get set for a homestead next Friday night as they welcome Storm to Peoria for the first time this season on Friday, November 3. Face-off is set for 7:15 p.m.
