Rivermen Can’t Complete Comeback, Fall 3-2 in Mississippi Friday

Photo Credit: Mississippi RiverKings

Rivermen Can’t Complete Comeback, Fall 3-2 in Mississippi Friday

Rivermen can’t overcome two-goal first in road finale

Southaven, MS – The Peoria Rivermen fell behind 3-0 to the Mississippi RiverKings and couldn’t complete a late comeback attempt, falling 3-2 in regulation to the Mississippi RiverKings at Landers Center Friday night. The loss drops the Rivermen into a third-place tie with Fayetteville, one point behind Huntsville, before the final night of the regular season tomorrow.

The RiverKings opened the scoring with a pair of goals in the latter half of the game’s first period. With the puck in the neutral zone, RiverKings winger Matt Harrington carried into the high right wing of the Peoria zone, held, then fed a pass to teammate Corey Tyrell streaking through the slot, and he tapped it past Peoria goaltender Tyler Parks for a 1-0 Mississippi lead at 11:00 of the first. The RiverKings doubled their lead at 17:05 of the first when RiverKings rookie Derek Sutliffe’s feed from behind the Peoria net was snapped home by Harrington for a 2-0 RiverKings lead at 17:05 of the first.

The RiverKings built their lead to 3-0 on the power play just past the midway point of the second period. With Peoria captain Dan Bremner in the sin bin for tripping at the 9:00 mark of the period, RiverKings defenseman Joe Sova took the puck at the right point, spun inside to the boards, and cut back into the circle, where he flicked a wrister past Parks’ glove at 10:28 of the second.

The Rivermen got on the board with an even-strength tally late in the second. With the puck on the right wing of the RiverKings zone, Rivermen center Michael Colantone fed a pass to the doorstep, where Rivermen defenseman Dave Pszenyczny held, waited, then slipped a pass across the crease to teammate Eric Witzel, who tapped it home for a 3-1 lead at 14:36 of the second.

The Rivermen got within a goal late in the game’s third and final stanza. With a mad scramble ongoing in front of RiverKings goaltender Peter DiSalvo, the puck came free to Witzel, who whacked it past DiSalvo for a 3-2 score at 16:22 of the third.

After killing a kneeing minor against Bremner assessed at the 16:33 mark of the third, the Rivermen pulled Parks in favor of an extra attacker, but could not get a shot on DiSalvo in the game’s final minute as the final buzzer sounded for the 3-2 final.

Parks stopped 24 of 27 shots faced as he took the loss in net, falling to 8-6-5 on the season. The loss is Parks’ first regulation defeat since March 18 at Roanoke.

Notes: Witzel’s two-goal night is the first of his SPHL career…Rivermen winger Alec Hagaman had his streak of three straight multi-point games snapped…The Rivermen return to action tomorrow night at Carver Arena when they wrap up the regular season against the RiverKings…Tickets to the game start at $9 and can be purchased through the Rivermen office or the Peoria Civic Center Box Office…Saturday’s game starts at 7:05 PM, and the broadcast of the game can be heard, starting with the pre-game show, at 6:45 p.m. at http://mixlr.com/peoria-rivermen/

Group, single game, and season tickets for Peoria's 35th season of professional hockey presented by Midwest Orthopaedic Center are on sale at the Toyota Box Office in the Peoria Civic Center, or by phone 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)