Rivermen Power Their Way Past Gulls in Playoff Opener : Hockey: Major penalty to Len Hachborn gives Peoria room to move in 4-1 victory.

Whatever parity existed between the Peoria Rivermen and the San Diego Gulls during the regular season quickly dissipated during the second period of their IHL playoff opener.

The Rivermen, defending Turner Cup champions, spoiled San Diego’s first IHL playoff game in history with a 4-1 victory Wednesday night in Carver Arena.

“We have a lot of young guys who have never been in playoffs before,” Gull winger Robbie Nichols said. “We were all nervous. Hopefully we settled it all down.”

They have a day to think about it. Game 2 is 5:30 p.m. PST Friday in Carver Arena.

On paper, this series should be a long one. Only six points separated the teams in the final standings, albeit because of the Gulls’ slide and Rivermen’s hot streak in the final stretch. The Gulls scored only seven more goals during the regular season and allowed only two less. The Rivermen boasted the IHL’s best special teams, while the Gulls were in the top three in both.

So what went wrong?

Once Len Hachborn, the IHL leader in assists, was issued a major penalty for spearing behind the action, the game tilted into the San Diego side of the rink.

“When we get a penalty like that, it hurts this hockey team,” Gull Coach Don Waddell said. “We need him in there.

“We got frustrated when it happened. We started chirping at the referee, which we can’t do. You need to save your energy for the ice.”

Less than a minute after Hachborn was ejected, an automatic sentence for spearing, Yves Heroux demonstrated Peoria’s league-leading power play with a wrist shot from the right circle that made it 3-0.

Dmitri Kvartalnov, the league’s leading scorer, picked up the Gulls with a goal at 10:48, but Brian Pellerin got the lead back to three with a 2-on-1 waist-high shot that found air between Gull Sean Burke’s glove and the left post.

Peoria peppered Burke with 37 shots, with hardly a floater in the bunch. Though Burke was outstanding at times, the Rivermen picked at his vulnerable glove side. Peoria goalie Guy Hebert was solid, making 20 saves.

“We had good chances,” Waddell said, “and their goalie made the plays.”

The Gulls hit the post twice in the first period and failed on all five power-play opportunities.

“This is a hard game to play if you’re shorthanded for most of a period,” Burke said. “It disrupts the lines, but it’s something you have to adjust to.”

The lone goal of the first period came with just 1:27 remaining, when Brian McKee beat Burke high on the glove side on a quick wrist shot from the left circle. It was Peoria’s 17th shot of the period.

Not even Kvartalnov, IHL goal and point leader, could beat Hebert one-on-one.

It took Peoria only 23 seconds of the second period to increase its lead to 2-0. After Burke stopped Michel Mongeau’s shot from the slot, Steve Tuttle put the rebound underneath a sprawling Burke, who could only watch the puck slither into the net.

Five minutes later, Hachborn was kicked out of the game and the Gulls found themselves short on more than just goals.

“Everybody got frustrated at that point,” said Ron Duguay. “Tonight we had our first playoff jitters.”

“Personally, I’d rather come back tomorrow,” Duguay said.

Peoria won nine of its last 11 regular season games to overtake the Gulls, who lost six of their last nine, for second place in the Western Division and the home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

San Diego would like to halt its slide immediately.

“If you talk about home-ice in the playoffs, the first one is the big one,” Waddell said. “You hope for a split, but now we gotta bear down.

“I said all along it was going to be a long series.”