December 7, 2019 7:15 pm
QuadCity Storm
Bears Fly, So Do Rivermen in 6-0 Win Over Quad City
Levine picture perfect in second straight shutout
Peoria, IL – Eric Levine notched 25 saves for his second consecutive shutout, and 12 different Rivermen registered points on their way to a 6-0 shutout win over the Quad City Storm Saturday night inside Carver Arena.
The Rivermen struck first, sending teddy bears through the air, courtesy of Nick Neville. While skating 4-on-4, Rivermen winger Alec Hagaman fed a pass to defenseman Nick Neville, who raced down the right wing boards, behind Storm goaltender Peter Di Salvo and wrapped the puck around the left post for the quick 1-0 lead at 4:06 of the opening frame.
Peoria doubled their lead less than five minutes later while on a power play. Cody Dion fired a cross ice pass to Jordan Carvalho in the left circle. Carvalho skated out of the circle and into the slot where he snapped the puck over the glove of Di Salvo for the 2-0 Rivermen advantage at 9:29 of the period.
Jean-Guy Trudel’s group widened their lead with a pair of second period tallies. The first coming from Jakob Reichert, who stuffed the puck past Di Salvo an a rebound at the right post at 4:44 of the middle frame. This prompted a Quad City goaltending change, with Ryan Mulder entering after Di Salvo gave up three goals on 12 shots. Just past the midway point of period two, Robin Hoglund found his way through Mulder, getting his second goal of the season, subsequently making it 4-0 in favor of Peoria.
The home team again had a two goal period in the final frame. The first goal of the period came just before the midway point of the stanza. Hagaman took a pass below the goal line from Neville, then crossed behind the goal net and wrapped the puck from the left post past a sprawling Mulder for the 5-0 Rivermen lead at 9:47 of the third period.
The Rivermen added a goal late in the period while on the power play. With Quad City defenseman Tucker Ross serving a slashing penalty, Rivermen winger Darren McCormick skated into the zone and got upended, but got back on his skates quick enough to cash in on a loose puck in front for his league-leading 14th goal of the season, making it the eventual 6-0 final.
Eric Levine earned the win in goal for Peoria, stopping all 25 shots faced in his second consecutive shutout performance, and third of the season. Levine improves to 7-0-1 on the season, helping Peoria finish the first quarter of the 2019-20 campaign with a 12-1-1 mark. Quad City fell to 4-8-3.
Notes: With his shutout performance, Eric Levine sits at 125:22 of shutout hockey….Hagaman recorded his 4th straight multi-point game….Paul Fregeau recorded the first multi-point game of his career with two assists…Jakob Reichert has 8 points in his last five outings….The Rivermen return to action next Friday and Saturday night as they hit the road to Evansville, IN for a pair of games against the Thunderbolts at the Ford Center…Puck drop for Friday and Saturday’s games are scheduled for 7:15 p.m. CST….The broadcast of the game can be heard, at http://mixlr.com/peoria-rivermen/ starting with the pre-game show, at 7:00 p.m. CST.
Group, single game, and season tickets for Peoria's 38th season of professional hockey presented by Midwest Orthopaedic Center are on sale at the Toyota Box Office in the Peoria Civic Center, 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)
