PEORIA — Who are these guys?
It may be a line from a great movie, but it has become words to live by for a Peoria Rivermen team that is good theater right now in the SPHL.
The Rivermen have won 10 straight games and have burned through the SPHL at 16-0-1 in their last 17 outings to build an eight-point first-place lead over the field.
They extended those numbers Sunday with a 3-1 win over Evansville in a game that saw them notch three goals in 6:44 in the first period before 3,069 at Carver Arena.
They are climbing up the record books in the SPHL with their hot streak, and they are doing it with a roster recently loaded with an array of guys who are relatively unknown.
Names like Brandon Stojcevski. Zac Sirota. Jack Suchy. Damon Furuseth. Eimantas Noreika. Alex Davis. Connor McAnanama.
All of those guys joined the Rivermen during this remarkable 17-game run. Stojcevski has played 12 games here, Davis 9, Noreika 11, Furuseth 1, Suchy 1, Sirota 2, McAnanama 2.
It hasn’t mattered. They join the group, blend right in and keep on winning. And the Rivermen don’t have an identity crisis. They look at themselves as winners.
“We know who we are right now,” Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. “We are not pretty. We’re doing what it takes, and the boys are just competing and they understand who we are. We know who the Peoria Rivermen are and that’s all that matters to us.”
These players have helped replace front-line Peoria pieces like Mike Gelatt, Garrett Devine, Griffen Fox and SPHL No. 1-ranked goaltender Jack Bostedt. All four of them are on ECHL call-ups with limited usage and success.
Down in the SPHL, the unknown crew has more than filled in.
Stojcevski had the game’s first goal Sunday to get Peoria rolling. McAnanama carried a shutout for nearly 54 minutes. League goalscoring leader Mike McChesney notched the game-winner and Connor Szmul added the final goal.
“We’re playing very smart when it comes to risk management, to puck management,” Trudel said. “And they are selfless. I could play Brendan, for instance, 10 minutes in a game when I’m mad at him, and he comes back the next game and works hard and pushes himself. He’s not complaining. It’s nice to have those type of players, they don’t (complain) about a situation they just find a way to matter and compete and get better.
“That’s what is happening here. We’re not going to beat teams 5-1 right now. Who are we? We’re a team with a bunch of guys who really want to be in a winning situation. Guys who are willing to win at all costs.”
For the record
The Rivermen won their 10th straight game Sunday, and now are in the neighborhood chasing the SPHL record.
Peoria owns that record. The league mark for consecutive wins is 14, set by the Rivermen, from Dec. 18, 2015 through Jan. 29, 2016. The current 10-game win streak is fourth-longest in league history.
Peoria has now gone 17 games without a loss in regulation. That’s the third-longest streak in SPHL history, and next ahead is an 18-gamer set by … the Rivermen … in 2021-22.
The league mark is 22, by Pensacola, in the 2013-14 season.
Peoria is 10-0-0 to start the 2026 calendar year, its best new year start since a 10-1-0 run in 2020. The Rivermen started 13-0-1 from Jan. 1 on in 2018-19. And their best-ever beginning from Jan. 1 of a season? That would be an 11-0-0 start in 2016, within their league-record 14-game win streak.
Defensively, meanwhile, the Rivermen are ranked No. 1 in the SPHL, allowing 1.86 goals per game.
How good is that? It’s second only to AHL Grand Rapids (1.80) in pro hockey, from the NHL down through the AHL, ECHL, SPHL and FPHL.
Peoria’s 1.86 goals-against is on pace for a single-season SPHL record, currently held by Macon’s 2020-21 team at 2.00.
48 days without a regulation loss
By the time the Rivermen get back on the ice for a weekend road trip to a powerful Huntsville team, they will have gone 48 days without a regulation loss.
Knoxville beat them 3-1 on Dec. 12. Trudel, sending a message to his team as it slid into sixth place, removed the leadership letters from his players’ jerseys. They played several games that way and had to earn those letters back.
That was also the start of Peoria’s 16-0-1 run. They have not lost a game since those letters came off.
“I had no idea this would happen,” Trudel said. “It was a calculated risk, but I had ownership protecting me and trusting me. I did it because I wanted everyone to play a certain way and understand our expectations are high, even though we had a really new team this year.
“What we did could have gone either way, the players could have responded with embracing it or the could have folded. The players make you look like a genius. You can’t change your expectations just because your personnel is different. You have to build a culture. It doesn’t matter who we have, we still expect to win every game.
“And that’s truly who we are.”
River Readings
The Rivermen waived defenseman Dash Quartarolo before the game. … Peoria signed left wing Jack Suchy and he debuted Sunday. He played four seasons at NCAA Div.-III Gustavus Adolphus College and turned pro this season in Europe, scoring 9 goals in 11 games for Mulhouse in France. … Peoria claimed left wing Damon Furuseth off SPHL waivers and he debuted Sunday. … Rivermen center Griffen Fox, on call-up to ECHL Bloomington, has not been playing and now has been shifted onto the Bisons reserve list. … Evansville stayed in Peoria after the game Sunday, waiting out a severe winter storm that hit Indiana. … The Rivermen embark on an eight-game, 25-day road trip that starts with a two-game showdown at second-place Huntsville next weekend. They don’t play again at Carver Arena until a Feb. 20 rematch with Evansville.
(This story has been updated to add new pictures)
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: ‘We know who we are’: Inside the incredible Peoria Rivermen win streak
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
