The Peoria Rivermen returned to Bloomington on Saturday night for one night only hosting the Evansville Thunderbolts. The last time the Rivermen were in the arena was March 4th, 2014, when they played the Bloomington Thunder. That was the last year the Thunder played in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL).
The Rivermen hosted the game here on Saturday because their normal home, The Peoria Civic Center Arena, was hosting the United States Synchronized Skating Championships.
It’s been quite a year for the Rivermen already as an organization. The big story has been off the ice rather than on it. The major issue has revolved around whether or not the team will be staying in Peoria. The Peoria Civic Center Arena has been in need of $47 million in repairs for years and those estimates are now dated. The arena needs repairs to the roof and a new ice plant in addition to other improvements.
Just this past Tuesday the Peoria City Council agreed to move forward voting to request the city staff prepare an ordinance and submit it to council for preparation of a bond sale to raise $20 million. That funding, in addition to $27 million the state has committed to the arena, would provide the $47 million so the roof can be repaired, a new ice plant installed and other upgrades made.
But the Rivermen need to sign a lease. And they can’t sign a lease unless they know these needs will be taken care of.
Emily Hagaman, is the leader of Operation Save The Rivermen an organization of people fighting to make sure the Rivermen stay in Peoria. She told Cities 92.9, “It’s just a group where we are trying to keep all of the information in front of people because it can get lost really easily. So we just want to make sure that all the information is in front of people and they know what they are fighting for and why we are trying to keep them here.”
We asked Hagaman how she felt after Tuesday’s council action and she said, “I really am excited about what the future might hold but I am not holding my breath until I am sure that we are saved and that means we need a contract, and that means that we need to replace the ice plant. I am a little bit worried (by) the fact that they want to wait another whole year to do that. But I am glad to see what could potentially happen.”
Hagaman responded to our question about potential hold ups saying, “So right now they said there is money that is waiting but again that hasn’t been voted on yet so that will be voted on, on March 14th. And then we also need the Rivermen office to negotiate a contract with the PCC (Peoria Civic Center) so we will see kind of what that looks like. We don’t get a really big say in that but hopefully it’s a fair shake.”
Meanwhile the team itself sticks to its business.
Coach Jean-Guy Trudel puts it this way, “As hockey players and hockey coach we call it the dungeon. We are downstairs and we just focus on trying to put (out) the best product possible and trying to win a league championship again this year. We understand what’s going on up there but unfortunately that’s more of our upstairs, our CEO, Bart Rogers, that deal with that. They are in all those meetings.
“We understand we are going to be here this year so all we have to do is keep winning hockey games and do what we do best on the ice,” Trudel said. “I feel like being in first place right now we are doing what we need to do on the ice and the product is good enough for our great fans in Peoria.”
That’s right folks. The Rivermen are in first place. That’s despite not knowing where they are going to play next year and not being able to play at home due to a figure skating event. On top of that they are battling injuries and rounds of the stomach flu. As a result of the combination of flu and the ice skating event they haven’t even been able to practice in two weeks. Yet after Saturdays 3 – 0 shutout they are still in first place with a record of 32-10-2-1.
Official attendance for the game recorded a crowd of 4,997.
The Rivermen scored early to take the lead at 1-0.
Trudel described the first goal for us saying, “That’s a good play. We know certain teams. Like we play these teams a lot. So we have some pre scouts. So we know what works, what doesn’t work. And I think we did a great delay on an entry then R. D. did a good job of opening up a lane by himself with his feet and then we put it through.”
Trudel continued, “And we, our identity, we love net presence. We go to the net more. We’re net present a lot. And we had a great screen there. The goalie couldn’t see it. Because he has been really hot against us lately. So good job by everybody.”
Then the game settled into a defensive battle for over two periods.
“We talk about defense is an old dog,” Trudel told us. It’s always loyal. If you play it hard, you have a chance to win and that’s what we did today. We knew with our roster, with everybody missing, we are missing four or five good players, just like them, so we knew with our roster, we had to play a certain way to win the hockey game and the guys bought in and we found a way to bring it home.”
Late in the third period, at 16:27, JM Piotrowski found the net for the Rivermen’s second goal that pretty much put the game on ice.
Piotrowski described his goal for us saying, “I thought our power play was working pretty well, the few opportunities that we had, just getting the pucks to the net. Net presence is our identity as a team. He was kind of hugged to the net and I was able to just flip it over his pad. Not pretty. But it worked. We’ll take it.”
Approximately three minutes later Piotrowski scored a second goal, an empty netter, from the blue line, that truly sealed the deal.
“I think late in the game they were desperate down two, “Piortrowski said. “We were desperate too. We were trying to block shots trying to just do whatever we can, just having a never quit attitude I think. I was able to kind of get a stick on the first one so he bobbled it at the blue line and then pressure creates turnovers so I just kept my feet moving and I was able to pick it up and kind of just muscle memory at that point just shooting it in from the far distance.”
Following Pensacola’s win on Thursday night over Quad City the Rivermen became the first team in the league to clinch the playoffs. Still, they have over a month (12 games) of the season left during which they will be trying to stay focused and hold on to their number one seed for the playoffs.
