The stars aligned Tuesday night for the Peoria Rivermen as they snapped a six-game home-ice losing streak and climbed out of the basement in the AHL West Division.
The Rivermen put up a good offensive effort, put up enough defense and got some goaltending to beat the Texas Stars, 4-3, before 3,814 at Carver Arena.
Peoria got goals from Pascal Pelletier, Brett Sonne, Nicholas Drazenovic and Chris Porter — who scored the game-winner — and got a strong blue-line outing from Nate Guenin.
“We were scattered around and they collapsed the front of the house on us at the end there, but we held ’em off,” Guenin said in reference to Texas’ last-ditch charge after pulling its goaltender for an extra attacker in the final minute. “Losing is a habit. But winning is a habit, too. That’s the one we want.”
The Rivermen took a 1-0 lead 93 seconds after the opening faceoff when Pelletier skated in from the right circle and sent a shot off goaltender Todd Ford’s glove and inside the right post.
Texas tied it at 9:04 when defenseman Andrew Hutchinson’s 50-foot drive from the top of the slot forced a rebound off goaltender Hannu Toivonen and left the puck just outside the goal line, where Aaron Gagnon jammed it across amid a scramble.
The Rivermen got traffic to the net and built a 2-1 lead at 7:11 of the second period as a result.
Peoria wingers Adam Cracknell and Ryan Reaves camped against Texas defensemen Matt Stephenson and Dan Jancevski, and that set the stage for Sonne to bury a rebound as he moved in from the right circle.
Texas had a huge chance midway through the period, a five-on-three power play for1:02. But the Rivermen erased most of it using two forwards and one defenseman. The Stars did the rest when Gagnon slapped the stick out of Toivonen’s hand and was boxed for interference.
Texas tied it at 15:42 when winger Scott McCulloch skated around the back of the net, stopped and stuffed the puck around the right post and past Toivonen’s outstretched left skate.
But Drazenovic smacked a bouncing puck from the left edge of the crease past Ford for a 3-2 lead at 5:48 of the third. Porter made it 4-2 at 13:50 when he powered in from the right circle and one-handed his own rebound inside the right post.
Texas picked up a power play goal from defenseman Maxime Fortunus at 17:13 and pulled for Ford for an extra attacker in the final 64 seconds.
“There’s a point where pucks go in for you and you start to feel confident, and that’s what is happening right now,” Sonne said. “The team needed a big effort tonight, and I think we did that, and it’s what we need to do to get to the playoffs.
“At the end of the game, every guy in the room can reflect on the game and know they played a solid 60 minutes.”
RIVER READINGS: The Rivermen sent defenseman Jason Lepine back to IHL Bloomington after the game…Peoria will send rookie enforcer Anthony Peluso to ECHL Alaska on Wednesday morning…Rivermen center-winger Julian Talbot was a healthy scratch. … Peoria defensemen Bryce Lampman (concussion) and Danny Richmond (back spasms) missed the game. … The NHL was in full force at Carver Arena as scouts packed press row, including Claude Larose (Carolina), Dirk Graham (San Jose), Garth Joy (Colorado), Scott Mellanby (Vancouver), Dave Brown (Philadelphia), Archie Henderson (Ottawa) and Rob Ramage (St. Louis). … Rockford general manager Mark Bernard also was on hand, as was Bruce Southern, a scout for Manitoba. … IHL Bloomington coach Jarrod Skalde was at the game.
Dave Eminian can be reached at 686-3206 or [email protected].
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