PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen were looking for a playoff hero Thursday in Game 1 of the SPHL President’s Cup Finals.
It took sudden-death overtime to find one, when Tyler Ryder notched the game-winner 88 seconds into sudden-death to clinch the series opener, 2-1, before 2,178 at Carver Arena.
Ryder grabbed the puck between the circles, drifted left, and fired a shot through goaltender Kristian Stead that rattled through for a victory.
Game 2 of the best-of-5 series is Friday in Carver Arena.
The Rivermen spent the first 75 seconds in the Evansville zone after the opening faceoff. The Rivermen earned a power play in the eighth minute, and produced three shots on it but could not score.
The Rivermen broke open the scoreless tie at 13:38 when captain Alec Baer skated through the left side of the zone, reached the endline, one-handed the puck into the crease and it was knocked in by Griffen Fox from the doorstep, slipping past Stead and inside the right post.
That gave Peoria a 10-3 shots lead as it continued to dominate the opening period.
Evansville built a presence in the Rivermen zone during the first eight minutes of the second period, but Peoria cleared those danger spots and twice nearly scored in the midway part of the period on quality chances by Mike Gelatt and Matt Wiesner.
Peoria had another terrific shift with about six minutes left, mustering four shots as Evansville scrambled in its zone to keep them off the board.
Rivermen winger Daniel Chartrand, parked in front of the net, was hit by a deflected puck in the face off friendly fire with 2:35 left, and headed to the bench for medical attention.
He did return and play in the third period.
The Rivermen reached a big moment at 4:41 of the third period when Braydon Barker was boxed for holding, sending Evansville to its first power play of the game.
Peoria’s penalty kill unit came through, though, protecting the 1-0 lead.
Evansville tied it 1-1 with 11:46 left in the third period when Evan Miller, uncovered below the right faceoff circle dot, turned and fired a shot over goaltender Nick Latinovich.
That snapped a shutout sequence by Latinovich at 189 minutes, 35 seconds over parts of four games.
The Rivermen had another big flurry left in them with 2:35 left in regulation, forcing a three-shot scramble in front of Stead, but they were unable to finish and the game went to overtime.
River Readings
The Rivermen continued to use 2024-25 SPHL MVP winger Jordan Ernst, who scored 37 goals last year, on defense, pairing him in Game 1 with Kylar Fenton. It has worked well so far. … SPHL commissioner Doug Price was on hand and will track the series. … The winner of Game 1 of the President’s Cup Finals has gone on to win the championship series in 19 of 20 years. … The lone exception: The Rivermen lost Game 1 against Huntsville in the 2023-24 Finals and came back to win the championship in Peoria.
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 win in overtime to take series lead in SPHL Finals
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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