EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The Peoria Rivermen SPHL President’s Cup Finals series against the Evansville Thunderbolts looked all but done as Game 3 arrived Wednesday.
Instead, the Rivermen were left looking for a do-over as they were out-skated, out-chanced and out-played for the first 40 minutes and lost, 2-1, to a desperate Evansville team before 2,872 at Ford Center.
What was supposed to be a close-out championship game for Peoria instead turned into a troubling Evansville win that cut Peoria’s lead to 2-1 in the best-of-5 series.
The Rivermen will try again to clinch a championship in Game 4 at Ford Center at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
“Only at this level can a team not show up for a championship opportunity,” Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. “They surprise me every day. We had a chance to win a championship and we just seemed like we didn’t care or wanted to be here. It is what it is. We’ll come back and regroup and hopefully the boys will decide to play tomorrow.”
The Rivermen had Evansville in a 2-0 headlock in the series with a chance to clinch their third title in five seasons. Instead, they looked tentative and slow, didn’t manage their first shot of the game until it was eight minutes old, and produced an array of defensive zone turnovers that forced goaltender Nick Latinovich into a monumental effort to hold them in a scoreless game through the first 38 minutes.
Asked what he needed to see from his team early on in any game to detect how they might play, Latinovich, who led Peoria to a championship in 2023-24 said:
“Hard (forward 1) play, hitting, blocking shots, second guy supporting. Just simple things, really. They go a long way and make a big difference in the game.”
And what does he expect for Game 4 on Thursday?
“I think we’re coming out ready.”
40 minutes of regret
The SPHL regular-season champion Rivermen were 1-5-1 during the season at Ford Center. Evansville now is 5-0 in this postseason on its home ice.
They played better than they have in the series so far. But the biggest swing was the Rivermen played worse.
With the game still scoreless midway through the second period, the Rivermen drew a power play when Jordan Simoneau bowled over Latinovich as he charged through the crease. Peoria had several big chances on that advantage but could not finish against goaltender Kristian Stead.
Then Simoneau was awarded a penalty shot at 13:54, but Latinovich didn’t have to do much to earn a stop, as the shot sailed way wide right.
The Rivermen ran out of reprieves in the final 2:33 of the period, though, when the Thunderbolts scored twice in 79 seconds.
Anthony Mollica’s drive from the inside edge of the right circle deflected in off Latinovich’s stick or blocker for 1-0 at 17:27.
Then a shot from the right circle by Aaron Huffnagle deflected off Latinovich high into the air, and as it came down near the bottom of the right circle, Evan Miller batted it into the net at 18:46.
“Latinovich is the only reason is wasn’t a 5-1 game,” Trudel said. “We weren’t in the same ballpark. They just out-worked us, out-skated us, had more physicality … our boys just didn’t want to play tonight. We thought all those fans and letters would motivate them. We just don’t know I guess. Hopefully they show up tomorrow and they are a little more motivated than they were tonight.”
A launching point?
The Rivermen started to snap out of it in the third period and had Evansville reeling most of the session.
They got one back 78 seconds into the period when Mike Gelatt gathered a loose puck off a weird deflection in the right circle, headed to the doorstep and jammed a shot past Stead for 2-1.
It was close call after close call after that, another power play that included furious scrambles on the doorstep, and a breakaway by Griffen Fox with 3:37 left in which he lost control of the puck as he arrived at the net.
The Rivermen pulled Latinovich for an extra attacker with 1:46 left, and had Evansville on the ropes in the final seconds, with multiple chances, but could not get one past Stead.
“We didn’t do a great job matching their energy (in the first 40 minutes),” Rivermen captain Alec Baer said. “Seeing their backs are against the wall, they are at home now and nothing to lose, all that. We just kind of let them dictate the pace in the first and second. You could see we started playing our game in the third, we were desperate and we were all over them.
“We have a lot of guys in here who have been in this situation, older guys … we have to take the reins. It definitely starts with me, and have everyone follow along.
“When you have a guy like (Latinovich) playing like he is, you can’t leave him on an island like that the first two periods, so we got to step it up, us older guys, absolutely.”
River Readings
The SPHL says all remaining games of the Presidents Cup Finals will be streamed on FloHockey 24/7, their free, ad-supported streaming channel available on Prime Video and Fubo (U.S.), Fubo and Bell Fibe TV (Canada), and on FloHockey’s YouTube channel. That includes Game 4 on Thursday night.
(This story has been updated to add more pictures and video)
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 responded after losing Game 3 of SPHL Finals
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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