Peoria Rivermen Defeat Chicago Wolves 5-3, Marek Schwarz Makes 38 Saves for Peoria - AHL

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - Trent Whitfield scored twice, including the game winner as the Peoria Rivermen upended the Chicago Wovles 5-3 on Saturday night at Allstate Arena.


Chris Porter sprang Nikolay Lemtyugov on a breakaway less than two minutes into the opening frame as Peoria got on the board first. Lemtyugov deked to the backhand and flipped the puck over a sprawling Ondrej Pavelec at 1:57 to give the Rivermen a 1-0 lead.


Kevin Doell tied the contest at 4:49 when he wrapped the puck around from behind the Peoria goal, stopped on the first attempt by Marek Schwarz. But Doell tried again and this time the biscuit managed to find a way in off the skate of the Peoria netminder to tie the game at 1-1 after 20 minutes of play.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Rivermen would mark three times in the second period, beginning just 56 seconds into the stanza. Jean-Guy Trudel returned from blocking a shot off his foot to score off a Charles Linglet feed, touching off the offense for Peoria.


Trudel and Chris Porter forced the next goal with aggressive forechecking in the Chicago zone, finally getting the puck in front to Micki DuPont who blasted a shot home past Pavelec at 6:02 to make it 3-1.


The Wolves pulled within a goal when Brian Fahey’s point shot found the net over the right shoulder of a screened Schwarz at 9:50.


Then during a five-on-three power play Whitfield tipped a Trudel feed in front of the Wolves net, sending the puck through the legs on Pavelec to restore the two-goal edge.


Jason Krog netted a late goal with just 43 seconds remaining in the frame to set up a 4-3 score heading into the final frame.


Whitfield’s second goal of the night came on a shorthanded breakaway just 41 seconds into the third period, as Schwarz fed the puck around the boards to Chris Porter who lobbed it over the heads of the Chicago defense, springing Whitfield for the marker.


Schwarz played spectacularly all night, making 38 saves in total to pick up the win. Pavelec finished the contest with 27 stops.