How armadillos, broken buses, a 40-hour travel saga all helped Rivermen to an SPHL playoff sweep

PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen made sure the road to the SPHL championship continued to go through Peoria on Saturday.

Give or take 40 hours.

The Rivermen finished an incredible hockey journey with an inspiring victory over the Pensacola Ice Flyers, 2-1, to sweep the best-of-3 quarterfinals playoff series and keep their title defense alive before 2,594 at Carver Arena.

BOX SCORE: Rivermen 2, Pensacola 1 | SPHL PLAYOFFS: Quarterfinal scores

They will learn on Sunday whether they face Roanoke or Fayetteville in the semifinals. Either way, that series will start with Game 1 on the road Wednesday, then come back to Peoria for Game 2 on Friday, and Game 3, if needed, on Sunday.

But what the Rivermen did Saturday — and in the 40 hours leading up to the game — will define how this team will be remembered, regardless of how much longer its postseason journey lasts.

They overcame a situation that would have melted down most teams, stranded in Alabama, then in Tennessee, their team bus twice broken down after leaving late Thursday night from Pensacola with a Game 1 victory. It took them 40 hours to get home, arriving at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday just a few hours ahead of Game 2.

"People don't understand what this team just went through," Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. "Forty hours on a 95-degree bus with no air conditioning. Busing the last 11 hours on the day of the game.

"The stories are countless from this. This team has more heart, more character than any team I've ever played for, coached or been around."

More: Waffle House, weigh station: How the Peoria Rivermen spent 40 hours stranded on way home

The road to Game 2

The Rivermen had no postgame meal in Pensacola after Game 1 on Thursday night because, Trudel said, the food provided there was ice cold. The team ate bags of chips at a gas station.

The bus broke down near a Waffle House in Alabama, stranded for 12 hours. A mechanic — who Trudel described as a "150-pound guy who was working under the bus, smoking two cigarettes at the same time" — made repairs.

Then the bus broke down again in Tennessee, stuck in an isolated weigh station. No food. No water. No bathroom. A tow truck driver dispatched his wife to pick up pizzas for the players.

Hagaman played a game of four-square on the pavement with teammates. They played for hours, holding their phones in flashlight mode so they could keep playing when it got dark.

Winger Jordan Ernst found something to do, too.

"There was this armadillo, I started chasing it," Ernst said. "So yeah, the armadillo guy was me."

When finally they were rescued, it was a limo party bus with no air conditioning. They crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder in the seats, equipment bags piled up in the center aisle.

They rolled into Peoria at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Trudel walked into his office, lay down on the floor, and went to sleep. "I felt like I was in the twilight zone," he said.

No one expected them to play Saturday. Not the SPHL. Not even Pensacola.

Yet they did. In fact, they demanded it.

"We couldn't get into a situation crazier than what we were already in," Hagaman said. "We weren't going to have anyone be able to say the league helped us with any favors. Every single guy on this team spoke up and said we're playing Saturday night, no postponement. I'm so damn proud of these guys."

A statement on the ice

Then they spoke up on the ice Saturday. The crowd chanted "Let's go Rivermen" throughout the game's opening shift.

The noise level soared when a scoreless tie was broken at 11:11 of the first period by Hagaman, who raced in on a breakaway and tapped his own rebound past goaltender Brad Arvanitis as he arrived at the net.

That was back-to-back goals for Hagaman in the series, who scored the game-winner late in the third period of Game 1 on Thursday.

Pensacola tied it at 18:04 of the second period during four-on-four play when Malik Johnson put a rebound past goaltender Jack Berry from the left side of the crease.

Berry was terrific, and he knew something that Pensacola didn't.

"I had no doubts we were going to win when Coach Trudel asked us (while stranded at the weigh station in Tennessee) if we wanted to postpone Game 2 or play Saturday night," Berry said. "Every guy said play it.

"Then in the second period tonight, Pensacola had a shot from the slot and our defenseman, Braydon Barker, blocked it. I knew right then we were going to win.

"They played fantastic in front of me. When those guys do that they can make a goaltender look pretty good."

Just 68 seconds after Pensacola tied it, the Rivermen had an answer.

Arvanitis lost his stick to the left of the net, in the final minute of the second period.

Ernst, out of the penalty box just then, tried an initial shot from the right circle.

It was blocked, but the puck slid right back to him. He shot it again, and the stickless goaltender was helpless as the puck bounded in between his pads for the game-winner with 47.8 seconds left.

"I had no idea he'd lost his stick," Ernst said. "Just shot it in there."

It was a white-knuckle ride in the third period as both teams seemed to have little left in the tank. Peoria killed four power plays against Pensacola's league No. 1-ranked unit.

In return, the Rivermen had 26 seconds of power play time in the game's first 56 minutes.

The fans stood for the final minute, watched Peoria's Austin Wisely hit the right post on an empty-net bid after Arvanitis was pulled for an extra attacker, and screamed the Rivermen across the finish line.

"There's no one I'd rather be stranded on the highway with than these guys," said Ernst, looking around the locker room.

Said Trudel: "There's no team in history that went through what we just did to play a game. And now we get back on a bus Monday and get ready to play again."

River Readings

Rivermen winger Marcel Godbout was activated from 21-day IR before the game but did not dress. He will return to the lineup in the semifinals. … The Rivermen arrived from their two-day trek back from Pensacola at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. … The SPHL assigned two referees to Game 2 on Saturday, Keith Grooms and Brett Straley. ... The Rivermen eliminated Pensacola in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight postseason. Including the final two games of the regular season, Peoria beat Pensacola four straight times. ... Small world: The Waffle House the Rivermen hung out at after their team bus broke down in Prattville, Ala., on Thursday night was three miles from former Peoria Pirates arena football head coach Bruce Cowdrey's home.

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 Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: How the Rivermen traveled 40 hours, chased armadillos and swept Pensacola