PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen were on the brink of their third championship in five seasons, but instead all they went home with Saturday was a T-shirt and a Finals series collapse never seen before in SPHL history.
The Rivermen dropped Game 5 of the SPHL President’s Cup Finals to the Evansville Thunderbolts on Saturday, 6-4, before 5,480 at Carver Arena.
That made Evansville a repeat league champion, and the Rivermen the first team in SPHL history to win the first two games of a best-of-5 Finals series and lose the championship. The 2025-26 series was the ninth in the five-game format.
The Rivermen playoff theme was “One More Push” emblazoned on their T-shirts, and reinforced by a stirring locker room speech delivering that theme by Bradley athletics director Chris Reynolds last month.
They rode that theme to their sixth Finals performance in 10 years.
Peoria knocked out wins in the first two games of the series, shifted to Evansville with a chance to sweep and celebrate, but lost both games, forcing Saturday’s Game 5 finale.
The fans arrived as early as 2:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. game, tailgating in the Civic Center parking lot.
Inside, at game time, a big crowd was jacked up and waiting through the national anthem and an immediate presence in the opening minutes.
The crowd included several former Rivermen, from 1984-85 IHL champion Peoria team Denis Cyr and Jerry August, to ECHL era Luke Gruden and Tyler Rennette, and SPHL players Tristan Trudel, Zach Wilkie and others.
The Rivermen went with 12 forwards and five defensemen, but used two of those forwards, veterans Braydon Barker and Jordan Ernst, as defensemen.
The Rivermen strike first
The Rivermen took a 1-0 lead at 7:01 of the first period when captain Alec Baer surged across the blueline, cut from the top of the right circle toward the middle of the slot, and sent a drive past goaltender Kristian Stead’s shoulder side.
The crowd erupted but the energy didn’t last long, as 39 seconds later Evansville tied it on a bad goal. Thunderbolts captain Matt Hobbs dumped the puck on net from the left point, and it bounced in on goaltender Nick Latinovich, bounced off his pads and across the doorstep for an open-net finish from Isaac Champman.
The Rivermen fell behind 2-1 at 17:07 when Myles Abbate was able to muster a no-look pass off the endboards behind the net to Cameron McPhee as he arrived in the slot and punched past Latinovich’s stick side.
Now you see ’em, now you don’t
Peoria, which had only one shot in the final 12 minutes of the first period, snatched the momentum back quickly in the second and tied it on a slick move by Ernst.
Ernst took a pass at the top of the left circle, bluffed a big slapshot, then moved up and tucked a shot around Stead and inside the left post for a 2-2 tie at 2:56.
One of the most stunning collapses in Rivermen playoff history followed though, as Evansville rattled off three goals in a span of 6:19 and drove Latinovich out of the net.
Evansville veteran Scott Kirton received another pass off the endboards as he broke in uncovered in the slot and buried the puck for 3-2 at 4:14.
Then Hobbs, 38 seconds later, knocked a loose puck through Latinovich at the right post for 4-2.
The Rivermen sent SPHL Goaltender of the Year Jack Bostedt into the net, and Evansville extended its lead to 5-2 at 10:18 when Champman notched his second of the game off a two-on-one break from the left circle.
Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel took his timeout after that.
One Last Push
The Rivermen were against the clock and the Evansville defense in the third period.
They scratched to within 5-3 at 5:46 when veteran Mike Galatt delivered a goal.
The Rivermen earned a power play and cashed in with a big drive from Ernst at 14:54, drawing them within 5-4 and setting the stage for a tense final few minutes.
But Peoria could not climb into a tie.
Evansville captain Matt Hobbs was named SPHL Playoff MVP.
This story will be updated.
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: Peoria Rivermen make SPHL history with Finals collapse
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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