Rivermen Battle Back, Hold on Late in Macon Friday

Photo Credit: Bryan Meeks/Macon Mayhem

Rivermen Battle Back, Hold on Late in Macon Friday

Peoria wins fourth straight, earns chance at weekend sweep

Macon, GA – The Peoria Rivermen trailed 1-0 until the 17:02 mark of the second period before tying the score and eventually overtaking the Macon Mayhem en route to a 3-1 win at the Macon Centreplex Friday night. The win, Peoria’s fourth in a row, lifts the Rivermen to 28-3-4 before tomorrow night’s weekend finale against the Mayhem in Georgia.

The Mayhem opened the scoring with an even-strength tally early in the game’s opening period. Mayhem winger Vinny Caligiuri carried the puck into the left wing of the Rivermen zone on a 3-on-1 rush, and passed to the slot, where teammate Taylor Love rifled a shot past Peoria goaltender Stephen Klein for a 1-0 lead at 4:47 of the frame.

Peoria battled back and tied the game with a goal late in the second period. With a faceoff in the left wing of the Mayhem zone, Peoria won the draw back to the point, where Ben Oskroba’s wrister sailed through traffic and past the shoulder of Macon netminder Ian Sylves for a 1-1 score at 17:02 of the second period.

The Rivermen took the lead for good with a marker early in the third period while the teams were skating at 4-on-4. Rivermen center Justin Greenberg held the puck high in the Mayhem zone, and sent a pass to the high slot, where teammate Kevin Patterson’s one-time blast from the high slot beat Sylves for a 2-1 lead at 3:19 of the final period.

Peoria held onto their 2-1 lead, and out-shot the Mayhem 19-8 in the final period, before icing the game with an empty-netter in the final minute. With Sylves off for an extra skater, Rivermen winger Pijus Rulevicius intercepted a Mayhem pass between the circles of his own zone, and fired the puck into the unprotected Mayhem net for a 3-1 final score at 19:30 of the third period.

Klein turned aside 20 of 21 shots faced in net to earn his 15^th win of the season between the pipes. Klein’s win improves his record to 15-3-1 on the season and lowers his league-leading GAA to 1.83.

Notes: Rivermen winger Ben Blasko notched an assist on Oskroba’s goal to extend his point streak to 12 games…The win lowers Peoria’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot to 10 points over Quad City and 11 points over Pensacola, pending results of Friday night’s games…The win lifts the Rivermen to 12-0-2 all-time in regular-season play against the Mayhem…The Rivermen are 12-0-1 since New Year’s Eve and have won 19 of their last 22 games…The Rivermen return to action against the Mayhem in Macon tomorrow night at 6:30 Central Time…The broadcast of the games can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:10 at http://mixlr.com/peoria-rivermen/

Group, single game, and season tickets for Peoria's 37th 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)