PEORIA — Connor Szmul delivered a game-winning goal that was a sight for sore eyes for the Peoria Rivermen on Friday in Game 1 of the SPHL playoff semifinals.
The game was tied and seemingly headed toward overtime. But the rookie left wing from Wisconsin-Eau Claire cranked a big drive on the fly from the left circle that zipped over Knoxville goaltender Stephen Mundinger’s blocker shoulder, crashed into the crossbar, and dove down into the net at 17:49.
Knoxville pulled Mundinger for an extra attacker after that, and the Rivermen added two empty-net goals for a 6-3 victory before 2,471 in a fog-filled Carver Arena.
“I got that first one, first playoff goal,” Szmul said, grinning. “I didn’t like how I played early in the game, and I told myself if I was going to help this team I had to get going, be better.
“The play started in the neutral zone, we intercepted a puck there, and I had a little bit of a two-on-one and their defenseman (gave him room).
“I just closed my eyes and let it go. When I opened them it was in.”
The Rivermen forwards turned in perhaps their best performance of the postseason, helping boost a turnover-prone defense that made mistakes Knoxville put in the net.
Veteran JM Piotrowski – who scored the game-winner in overtime to clinch Peoria’s 2021-22 SPHL President’s Cup – looked like he turned back the clock, notching two goals.
The Rivermen came out of it with a 1-0 lead in the best-of-5 series, with Game 2 on Saturday in Carver Arena.
Every dog has his day
It was a decisively dog-themed postgame celebration. Szmul was chosen as the team’s “Dog of the Game” and donned a dog mask, barking and crawling along on all fours to the delight of his teammates.
Piotrowski was “Anchor of the Game” which gave him the right to choose a personal picture to place on the team’s playoff paddle-wheel while declaring who or what he was playing for.
“This is for Marley,” Piotrowski told the team. Afterward, he explained.
“Marley was my grandmother, Mimi’s, dog,” said Piotrowski, whose grandmother, by the way, has drunk from the President’s Cup both times Peoria has won it. “I was around him a lot, really cared about him, and we lost him in February. He would watch hockey games with me. So this really fit for me.”
How they started
Knoxville took a 1-0 lead 1:57 after the opening faceoff on a tic-tac-toe play, finished from the bottom of the left circle by Derek Osik into an open net.
Rivermen goaltender Nick Latinovich stopped Jason Brancheau from the bottom of the right circle after he picked off a pass from Peoria winger Jordan Ernst at 13:54.
The Rivermen turned it over three times in their zone in the first 16:50, and Latinovich saved each one.
The Rivermen finally broke through for a 1-1 tie with 76 seconds left in the first period when right wing Mike Gelatt burst down the right side of the zone, cut to the doorstep and jammed the puck in under Mundinger as he was knocked into the goaltender by Knoxville captain Jimmy Soper.
The momentum shift was short-lived, as Knoxville went back up 2-1 just 19 seconds later when Peoria couldn’t clear a loose puck at the right post and Jared Westcott eventually poked it inside the pipe off Latinovich.
But Piotrowski came through to tie it, 2-2, at 4:36 of the second period when he circled the back of the net, pounced on a loose puck and dunked it from the left post through the goaltender’s pads.
The Rivermen kept climbing in the second period, and took their first lead of the series at 3-2 off a three-on-two break at 14:23.
They charged in from the neutral zone, and Matt Wiesner dropped a pass for Piotrowski as he trailed in, skated uncovered all the way to the hashmarks and blasted a big slapshot past Mundinger.
Again the Ice Bears responded with a late goal, tying the game with 62 seconds left in the period on a goal from Jason Brancheau.
Ernst was at the left point in the Knoxville zone and tried to send the puck toward the net, but it went into Soper’s skates and took a U-turn into the neutral zone, springing a three-on-two charge that Brancheau finished.
It came down to this
The Rivermen had to kill a Knoxville power play late in the third period to stay in a 3-3 tie.
With the clock approaching two minutes and overtime looming, Szmul delivered his go-ahead score.
The Ice Bears pulled Mundinger for an extra attacker after that, and the Rivermen sealed it on empty-netters from Griffen Fox with 49 seconds left and Mike McChesney with 14 seconds left.
“When we were up 3-2, our defense had to make them go through five guys, make it hard for them,” Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. “We have to learn how to finish playoff games.
“In the third period we had that great penalty kill and we played really, really strong. We got through it. JM led the ship, (Szmul) gave us a bar-down winner and we’re going home up 1-0.”
Changing lines
The Rivermen rolled with captain Alec Baer centering Ernst and rookie Kullan Daikawa; Garrett Devine centering Fox and Gelatt, and Piotrowski centering Szmul and McChesney.
The defense pairings saw Braydon Barker with Kylar Fenton, Cory Dennis with Gunner Moore, and Trenten Heyde with Josh Martin.
SPHL awards begin
The end-of-season individual awards for the SPHL launched with the All-Rookie Team on Friday. Fenton won a place on that squad.
Here’s how it landed:
The All-SPHL First and Second teams will be announced on Monday.
River Readings
The Rivermen released left wing Carson Riddle before the game, and activated right wing Daniel Chartrand. … Chartrand and center Matt Wiesner served as extra forwards in Game 1. … Peoria shifted right wing Braydon Barker to defense, and he paired with Fenton. … Knoxville’s team bus broke down on the way to central Illinois and it turned into an 18-hour trip for the Ice Bears, who showed up in a solid banana-yellow charter. … The SPHL video goal review system in Carver Arena was operational in time for its debut Friday in Game 1 of the Rivermen series against Knoxville. … Peoria native Marquise Henderson delivered a terrific national anthem during pre-game.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star senior writer and 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 deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: How the Peoria Rivermen rallied to take Game 1 of the SPHL semifinals from Knoxville
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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