The Golden Eagles hadn't scored on their last 23 power plays, but Paul Ranheim finally goaled on the 24th try to end the second period and Jim Johannson added his league-leading seventh short-handed score at 8:25 of the third period as the Salt Lakers came from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Rivermen 3-2 Saturday night in Carver Arena.
The win kept the Eagles from having their first three-game losing streak of the season, and it gave them their 40th victory over the year against 20 losses and three overtime losses.They had lost at Denver a week ago and dropped a 3-2 game at Kalamazoo Friday night to start this four-game road trip.
The Eagles move on to division-leading Milwaukee for an afternoon game today at 3:30 MST.
Peoria had all three of its games earlier in the week and had taken seven of nine games going into Saturday's contest, starting with a 3-2 win in the Salt Palace on Feb. 11.
It was that game that started a string of three straight Saturday-night losses for the Eagles, who finally broke that jinx in Peoria.
Peoria's Tony Twist goaled at 3:09 of the first period, and the Eagles spent much of that period trying to bail themselves out of a real jam - a five-minute stick major penalty against Rick Hayward that was complicated by a bench minor against Coach Paul Baxter for arguing the call with referee Terry Koharski. That gave Peoria a 5 on 3 power play for two minutes, but it didn't score until it was down to a conventional 5 on 4 power play. Toby Ducolon got that power-play goal at 14:40 of the first for the 2-0 lead.
Ranheim, the league's leading goal-scorer, went from one end of the ice to the other for an unassisted breakaway goal at 7:17 of the second period, and he scored the power-play goal at 19:20 of the second on a blast from the left faceoff circle.
It was Ranheim's 49th goal of the season, leaving him 10 away from tying the franchise record set by Joe Mullen 10 years ago. It was also Ranheim's 12th goal against Peoria this season.
Ranheim also assisted on Johannson's score, a 2-on-1 break that gave rookie goalie Wayne Cowley his 14th win against six losses. Cowley stopped 29 of 31 Peoria shots while getting his fifth start in the last six games - the most he's played all season.