St-Cyr's Hat Trick Lifts Rivermen to OT Win in Knoxville

Photo: Michelle Jephcot/Knoxville Ice Bears

St-Cyr’s Hat Trick Lifts Rivermen to OT Win in Knoxville

Gorman adds two goals to help Peoria come from behind

KNOXVILLE, TN – The Peoria Rivermen trailed from the 13:01 mark of the first period until 1:41 of the third before eventually coming away with a 5-4 overtime victory at Knoxville Friday night. The win, Peoria’s third in their last four games, lifts the Rivermen to 5-3-1 on the season with two games remaining in their three-game, three-day, three-city weekend road trip.

The Knoxville Ice Bears took a 2-0 lead with a pair of first-period goals. At 13:01 of the first period, with Dakota Klecha in the penalty box for hooking, The Ice Bears scored when Andrew Bonazza’s shot from the point was tipped by Jake Flegel past the glove of Rivermen netminder Tyler Green for a 1-0 score. The Ice Bears doubled their lead just 55 seconds later on an unassisted tally by Doug Reid to make it 2-0 through one period.

The Rivermen got on the board just past the midway point of the second period. At 10:46 of the second, Rivermen winger Maxime St-Cyr took a shot wide of the Knoxville net. After corralling his own rebound off the back boards and banked the puck into the net off the back of Ice Bears goaltender Dylan Wells to make it 2-1.

Knoxville regained a two-goal advantage one minute later, as Andrew Bonazza took a feed from former Peoria winger Adam Stuart and skated into the Rivermen zone. Bonazza fired a wrist shot over Green’s shoulder and into the Peoria net to make it 3-1 Knoxville.

The Rivermen cut the Ice Bears lead back to one late in the second period. After Peoria forward Justin Hoomaian took a pass from St Cyr, he took a shot that was stopped by Wells. Peoria winger Connor Gorman controlled the resulting rebound and put it into the Knoxville net to make it 3-2.

The Rivermen tied the score early in the third period. With a faceoff in the Knoxville zone, St-Cyr won the draw back to Rivermen defenseman Ben Oskroba, who uncorked a slap shot from the top of the slot, and St-Cyr put the ensuing rebound into the goal to tie the score at 3-3.

The Rivermen scored a go-ahead goal late in the third. With the puck loose in the left circle, Alec Hagaman was knocked to all fours, and poked the puck free between the hash marks, where Gorman pounced on it and beat Wells to make it 4-3at 17:45 of the third.

The Ice Bears came back to tie the game 32 seconds later at 18:17 of the period, when Knoxville forward Jake Rivera took a shot from the left point that was blocked by the prone body of Flegel. Rivera’s second attempt got over Flegel and past Green to tie the game 4-4 and send it to overtime.

After each team was called for a minor penalty in the final two minutes of regulation, both penalties expired in overtime and the teams returned to 3-on-3 sudden death hockey. At 4:07 of the overtime period, Peoria entered the Knoxville zone on an odd-man rush. Peoria defenseman Dave Pszenyczny put a backhand on net and St-Cyr fired the rebound past Wells for the 5-4 final score.

Green earned the win in goal for Peoria, stopping 24 of 28 shots faced in 64:07 of game time. The win is Green’s fourth in six outings as a pro and his third victory in his last four appearances.

Notes: Hoomaian recorded an assist to give him points in two straight games…St-Cyr posted three goals and an assist in his SPHL debut…Gorman recorded his first career multi-goal game and added an assist…The Rivermen return to action Saturday afternoon when they continue their road trip in Huntsville with a 3:00 pm CST game against the Havoc…The game can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 2:45, at http://mixlr.com/peoria-rivermen/

Group, Season, and single-game tickets for Peoria's 35th season of professional hockey, presented by Midwest Orthopaedic Center, are on sale now at the Rivermen office, located at 201 S.W. Jefferson Street, or over the phone at (309) 676-1040. For the latest Rivermen news and notes, follow online at www.rivermen.net or through Facebook (www.facebook.com/PeoriaRivermen) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/Peoria_Rivermen)