Dave EminianJournal Star
PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen spent 12 days off on team-building exercises before getting back on the ice this weekend.
"We had a team steak dinner, we had an axe-throwing outing, we held a team party," Rivermen defenseman Zach Wilkie said. "Those things really helped us get ready for this weekend."
Then they staged the franchise's favorite team-building exercise on Sunday, a years-long traditional event called "Humiliate Quad City."
The Rivermen scored six goals in the third period Sunday to leave the Storm broken, and clinched a top-four finish and home-ice advantage in the first round of the SPHL playoffs with an 8-2 hammering before 2,669 at Carver Arena.
Box score: Rivermen 8, Quad City 2 | Standings: 2022-23 SPHL
The defending SPHL champion Rivermen are 41-13-6 against Quad City in this league, and 56-17-7 all-time in the SPHL and AHL eras combined.
Quad City coach Dave Pszenyczny sent out five defensem*n to start Sunday's game. It's an old-school move signaling intentions to brawl from the opening faceoff.
Nothing happened, and the Rivermen threw all the haymakers with a flurry of red lights in the third period.
"We got some swagger back, we feel like we're on our way," said Wilkie, who scored two goals, including the game-winner. "We out-worked them, we're trending upward and we feel pretty good now."
This was a 2-2 game when the third period opened. Then Wilkie's drive from the left circle beat goaltender Kevin Resop for the go-ahead score at 3:19.
The rout was on. Joe Widmar scored at 9:12, then Wilkie again 25 seconds later. Then Widmar again at 13:27.
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That gave the Rivermen a trio of two-goal scorers in Mitch McPherson — who earlier netted their first two of the game — Wilkie and Widmar.
"That third period, it helped us," McPherson said. "We knew we had to just keep playing our game, pushing everything to the net."
Then Jordan Ernst joined the party, scoring at 16:27 and then again at 18:03 to become Peoria's fourth two-goal scorer.
"That's 14 goals in two nights," Ernst said, grinning. "We have a tight-knit bunch of guys here, we know we have to keep improving.
"We got back to what we were doing that made us successful."
Rivermen 8, Quad City 2
Highlights from the Peoria Rivermen 8-2 win over Quad City at Carver Arena on Sunday, March 26, 2023.
Courtesy Frank Blain/Peoria Rivermen
One of the most memorable periods ever turned in by the Rivermen saw six goals scored in a span of 14:46 and left their rivals on the brink of missing the SPHL playoffs.
When the clock mercifully hit all zeroes, Ernst had a five-point game, McPherson had an assist to go with his goals, Alec Hagaman had three assists and JM Piotrowski had four four assists and a plus-4 rating.
Wilkie had two goals plus an assist and posted a stunning plus-6 rating.
On Friday night, after the Rivermen lost 1-0 to Quad City in Carver Arena in a game that saw Peoria attempt 104 shots, get 58 on net and 22 blocked by Quad City, Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel quipped, "We'll probably go score 14 goals in the next one."
In fact, they scored 14 in the next two, outshooting Quad City 124-46 to win two of the three games on the weekend.
The captain's milestone
Rivermen veteran captain Alec Hagaman was a healthy scratch at Quad City for Peoria's 6-1 win on Saturday.
He came back into the lineup Sunday and notched three assists to move up the SPHL's historical scoring list.
The Peoria native now has 397 SPHL points, passing Trevor Karasiewicz for third all-time in SPHL history.
The big picture
Huntsville was upset, 5-4, at home Sunday by a 12-36-3 Macon team. With the Rivermen winning, that race at the top flipped by four points.
Peoria left the weekend in first place, 0.029 percentage points ahead of Birmingham and 0.087 ahead of third-place Huntsville.
Peoria has mathematically locked out Evansville, Knoxville, Pensacola, Fayetteville, Quad City, Macon and Vermilion County.
"It's a nice next step," said Trudel, of his first-place team's clinching a home-ice playoff round. "But we never set our goals at finishing 1, 2, 3, 4 in the regular season. We're looking at the playoffs and competing for a championship.
"Home-ice advantage is nice for us to have because of how hard it is to beat us here."
The Rivermen are 181-44-22 for a .777 pointsmaking percentage on home ice all-time in the SPHL.In the last five seasons? 105-19-11 for an .816 rate.
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River Readings
Rivermen top-six forward Marcel Godbout suffered a shoulder injury in Saturday's game at Quad City and went onto 21-day IR Sunday. That puts him out through most of the first round of the SPHL playoffs. ... The Rivermen activated veteran winger Alex Carrier from IR on Sunday and he played. ... The Rivermen go away for a two-game series at Roanoke on Friday and Saturday. It's the first time the 2022 SPHL President's Cup finals opponents have met since Peoria won the championship at Berglund Center there last May. So it'll likely be an emotional two games for the Dawgs. ... The Rivermen play their regular-season road finale at Quad City on April 4, then close out the regular season at home with two games against Pensacola on April 7-8. ... That Peoria-Pensacola two-game set could be a preview of a first-round playoff series. ... The Rivermen should have playoff ticket info coming soon. ... Former Rivermen center Mike Laidley, who helped Peoria to a championship last spring, was in town to watch games Friday and Sunday. ... Former Rivermen winger Mike Gurtler was on hand Sunday. ... Rivermen defenseman Zach Wilkie's older brother, Jeff, was on hand Sunday.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
