PEORIA — Peoria Rivermen captain Alec Baer let his numbers do the leading in January, and now the SPHL has named him the league’s Player of the Month.
The veteran center notched four goals and delivered 12 assists in a January that saw the Rivermen go 12-0-0 and break open a 10-point lead over the rest of the SPHL.
Baer, who helped Peoria to SPHL President’s Cup championships in 2021-22 and 2023-24, had a game-winner in a victory over Quad City and scored in the sudden-death phase of a shootout tiebreaker for a victory in Huntsville.
He produced points in nine of 12 games for Peoria in January, and put together a five-game point streak.
“It’s always great winning an award like this, but really, with our team not losing a game in January it could have been a handful of our guys throughout that stretch who deserved it,” said Baer, as he prepared for Peoria’s game at Roanoke on Friday night. “We lost a lot of guys in a quick span to start the month, and the way players individually and all of us as a team stepped up and took on bigger roles was fun to see.”
Baer completes a trio of league honors for the Rivermen this week as they cash in on a now-ended 12-game win streak and 18-0-1 run. Both Peoria goaltenders, Nick Latinovich and Connor McAnanama were named SPHL co-Players of the Week, and a day later Latinovich was named SPHL Goaltender of the Month.
Now Baer joins the party. He is second in the SPHL scoring race with 42 points after 38 games. He leads the league with 32 assists, and also is tops in power play assists (20) and power play points (24).
Baer has been at the heart of Peoria’s team for several seasons. The second-year captain is in his sixth year with the Rivermen, and has played 290 games in his career with the franchise, including playoffs. He has 118 goals and 233 assists with 20 game-winners and a career +80 rating.
Baer was named SPHL MVP in the 2021-22 season, after the Rivermen won the league championship. He was just the fourth player in the then 40-year history of the Rivermen franchise to be named regular-season MVP of a league, and the first in 32 years.
“The streak is over now, so I think the new test will be how we respond after a long winning run like that,” Baer said. “Next thing for us is getting into playoff mode. We have to make sure we are building the right way, so when the playoffs begin our game is already at that level.”
(This story has been updated to add new information)
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 X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘Fun to see’: Peoria Rivermen sweep league awards as captain named Player of the Month
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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