Peoria Rivermen win SPHL championship for franchise's first title in 22 years
ROANOKE, Va. — The weight is over.
The Peoria Rivermen lifted the 22-pound President's Cup on Tuesday and shed the heavy burden of 22 years without a title.
The Rivermen won the SPHL championship, adding to their 40-year franchise legacy by beating the Roanoke Rail Yard Dogs, 3-2 in sudden-death overtime, in Game 4 of the SPHL President's Cup Finals to close the best-of-5 series before 3,532 at Berglund Center.
"We talked about leaving a legacy," an emotional Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. "We'd been to the SPHL Finals three times and lost. I'd been wanting a championship for nine years, and others waited even longer than that.
"Now we've made our legacy. It's important for the fans, it's important for the players and the organization and the city.
"We will all be champions for the rest of our lives."
No idea he scored the winner
JM Piotrowski cut across the doorstep and deflected a pass from Jordan Ernst between the pads of Roanoke goaltender Sammy Bernard to end it 66 seconds into sudden-death overtime.
"My leg was cramping up, so I was thinking we needed to end this thing," Piotrowski said. "I wasn't sure how it went in. I was there, I saw a pass coming on net and then I just blacked out. Next thing I knew it was a crazy mob out there."
That crazy mob hoisted the Cup on the ice, then continued their celebration in the locker room well into the night, spraying champagne, smoking cigars, drinking from the President's Cup.
BOX SCORE: Rivermen 3, Roanoke 2 (OT)
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It was a wet, wonderful celebration which after a bit was joined by family members and friends of the players, and fans who made the trip from Peoria. All in the locker room, dancing, singing, enjoying a moment the franchise has waited 22 years to have.
"There's no words for how this feels," said Ernst, who led Peoria in the series with three goals. "For 22 years this franchise has waited, and now that wait is over and we're all drinking. See ya."
'There's heroes in this room'
Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman stepped up to SPHL commissioner Doug Price, accepted the President's Cup and took off for the victory lap around the Berglund Center that he promised Peoria fans a year ago he would take for them.
While the Rivermen franchise was dormant in 2020-21, opting out because of COVID restrictions in Illinois, Hagaman and Ernst and Nick Neville played at Pensacola and won a championship.
They all returned to Peoria this season, Hagaman vowing they would do for the Rivermen what they did for Pensacola.
It meant a lot to Hagaman, the only Peoria-born captain in Rivermen history and a guy who grew up watching the team play.
"Talk about leaving a legacy," he said as champagne sprayed all around him. "There are heroes in this room. A lot of them. I love my city, and I wanted to bring a championship here and have these fans share that experience.
"Raising that Cup was so special in a Rivermen uniform. I feel like my own legacy is cemented forever."
It started slow, and then Dale spoke
The Rivermen played what might have been their worst period of the playoffs in the opening session, failing to even get a shot on goal until the 12th minute.
Before the second period was two minutes old, they were down 2-0 and Roanoke looked like it was going to force a decisive fifth game in Peoria.
"Someone in here is going to be a hero," a player said in the locker room after at intermission before the third period. "When we come back in here, we're going to be champions."
And then defenseman Dale Deon spoke up.
"Other than a 30-minute rant he gave us a while back, he hasn't talked all season," Hagaman said. "Then I look up and all of a sudden there's Dale, talking."
Deon's message was simple: "Enough talking. It's time for us to go to work."
"Right there, that moment, is when I knew we were going to win the President's Cup," Hagaman said. "I could see the shift in the room."
OT is where Rivermen champions live
With time growing short, Rivermen and SPHL Rookie of the Year Marcel Godbout ripped the puck past Bernard from the right circle on a power play at 12:23 of the third period for a 2-2 tie.
The Rivermen killed off a penalty in the final minutes, but with Godbout's goal and an earlier goal by veteran Mike Gurtler, had enough to force overtime.
It didn't take long in sudden-death for Peoria to end it, and it usually doesn't.
In the 40 years of the franchise, the Rivermen now are 7-2 all-time in overtime games in championship series.
In the 1984-85 IHL title run, Mike Prestidge won Game 1 at 6:48 of overtime. Denis Cyr won Game 4 at 49 seconds.
In the 1990-91 IHL title series, Michel Mongeau won Game 3 at 47 seconds of overtime.
In 1999-2000, when the Rivermen rallied to beat Louisiana for the title, Blaine Fitzpatrick won Game 3 just 49 seconds into double-overtime. Trevor Baker won Game 5 at 2:26 of double-overtime. Fitzpatrick delivered his iconic Cup-clinching goal in Game 6 at 1:56 of overtime.
More: 'We want the Cup': Historic start sends Peoria Rivermen to brink of SPHL title
And now Tuesday, it was Piotrowski joining that list with a Cup-clinching winner at 66 seconds.
"Our team hasn't done anything the easy way all year," Hagaman said. "We showed again how resilient we are. We raised the President's Cup for Peoria. That means everything to me, and I'll cherish it forever."
Taking their place with the best
The Rivermen won their first championship since the 1999-2000 team took the Kelly Cup in the ECHL.
Game 3: Peoria Rivermen rally, but Roanoke extends SPHL Finals series with Game 3 win
Peoria's historic Turner Cup champions in 1990-91 won a professional hockey record 18 straight games in the International Hockey League.
And the city's first professional hockey championship came from the Rivermen in the old IHL in 1984-85 season.
On Tuesday, players from all those teams looked on after days of well wishes. Fans gathered at a packed watch party in Peoria hosted by Bullpen Bar & Grill, and a few made the 11-hour drive to Virginia.
They watched a third-seeded Rivermen team do what previous powerhouse versions couldn't in the SPHL.
And now Peoria is believed to be the first city to have a championship team in all three levels of pro minor league hockey — the Triple-A IHL, the Double-A ECHL and the Single-A SPHL. For sure, Peoria is the first market to have a champion in all three of those leagues.
Through it all, Bart Rogers has been there, from intern to office exec and now part owner. He too was rewarded for his patience and perseverance Tuesday.
Berry was very good
The Rivermen made it to the Finals and earned the President's Cup on strong goaltending from Jack Berry, who finished 6-3 in postseason with a 2.44 goals-against and .944 saves rate.
Berry was named SPHL Playoff MVP on Tuesday after he made 31 saves to knock out Roanoke.
He played at Pensacola last season, and after they won a championship there, Hagaman urged him to call Trudel and see if he could create a tandem with veteran returnee Eric Levine.
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"Alec said he really wanted me in Peoria," Berry said. "And now here I am, with this Playoff MVP award. It's a real Cinderella story for me. And to see the game end the way it did, and we win a championship ... it's something you play out in your head a million times, picture it, and then it happens in real life.
"We just had the belief we were going to win. I just knew it. I could feel it."
On the way home
The Rivermen celebrated for a while in Roanoke, then packed up their bus and headed back toward Peoria.
They'll have a victory parade, firetrucks included, through downtown Peoria on Friday, ending at the Civic Center, where the team will welcome the public in Carver Arena to share the President's Cup.
Pictures, autographs, everything will be in play. Details on start time and parade route will come soon.
Among the team members celebrating will be three Peoria-born Rivermen players, another cool subplot to this championship team.
Hagaman and Mitch McPherson and Austin Wisely were born here, played youth hockey here, put on the uniform of a team they watched play while growing up, and now they've helped add to its long franchise story.
"A kid from Peoria helping win a championship for Peoria," Hagaman said. "That's a huge thing for all of us."
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. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: SPHL President's Cup Finals: Peoria beats Roanoke for 2022 title
