Rivermen Outlast Storm, Drop Magic Number to 1

February 8, 2019 7:15 pm

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Photo Credit: Dennis Sievers/Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Outlast Storm, Drop Magic Number to 1

Rivermen can clinch postseason trip with overtime loss or win Saturday at Quad City

 

Peoria, IL – The Peoria Rivermen scored first, led three separate times, and held on late to top the Quad City Storm 3-2 at Carver Arena Friday night. The win, Peoria’s sixth in a row, improves the Rivermen to 30-3-4 on the season, and drops their magic number to clinch a playoff berth to one point over the Storm before tomorrow night’s rematch at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline.

 

Newly acquired forward Austin Hervey netted a goal in his first game with the Rivermen while rookie winger Ben Blasko extended his SPHL-leading point streak to 14 games.

The scoreless deadlock was broken at the 8:35 mark of the first period when defenseman Kevin Patterson redirected a shot from the left circle by Ben Oskroba past the right shoulder of Storm goaltender Peter Di Salvo. Blasko was credited with the secondary assist to help give Patterson his sixth goal of the season and the Rivermen a 1-0 lead just under midway through the first.

 

The Storm answered to tie the game at the 15:49 mark of the first when Quad City winger Al Graves caught a rebound off of Peoria netminder Stephen Klein’s blocker and put it in to tie the game at 1-1.

 

Hervey scored his first goal as a member of the Rivermen and his fourth of the year at the 13:15 mark of the second period. Rivermen winger/defenseman Guillaume Naud found teammate Pijus Rulevicius with a pass just past the Storm blue line, and Rulevicius blasted a one-timer off the endboards. Hervey found the rebound and backhanded a shot into the net from the right circle to put Peoria ahead 2-1.

 

The Storm had a chance to tie the game again with just under three minutes left in the second when Quad City forward Phil Bronner had a breakaway into the Rivermen zone, but Klein was able to reject the initial shot along with two rebound attempts to hold the lead into the second intermission.

 

Quad City came out fast in the third period, re-tying the game at 1:15 of the frame when Storm winger Vincent Beaudry carried the puck behind the Peoria net, and sent it out front to teammate Shane Bennett, who put the puck past Klein to even the game at 2-2.  

 

The Rivermen were able to break through on their fourth power-play opportunity of the evening to take the lead for good at 11:01 of the third. Storm defenseman Skyler Smutek was hit for roughing 10:50 of the frame before Peoria defenseman Ralfs Grinbergs cannonaded a one-timer on the high slot on a feed from Patterson and beat Di Salvo for his second goal of the season and his first game-winner as a professional.

 

Peoria held off a late extra-attacker surge in the final 45 seconds, and held on for a 3-2 final score victory, improving to 10-1-1 in their season series with the Storm.

 

Klein stopped 22 of 24 shots faced to earn his 16th win of the season, improving his overall record to 16-3-1. Klein’s goals-against average finished the game at 1.84, good for best in the league among goaltenders with enough minutes to qualify.

 

Notes: Blasko extended his league-best point streak to 14 games, and he has four points in his last two outings…The Rivermen are 13-0-1 since a New Year’s Eve loss at Quad City…Patterson extended his point streak to five games…The Rivermen return to action tomorrow night when tey rematch the Storm at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline at 7:10…The broadcast of the game can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:50, at https://www.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)