Talking Peoria Rivermen lease, SPHL playoffs, milestones and a goalie goal

PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen are in familiar position as the final days of the 2022-23 Southern Professional Hockey League season arrive. First place.

The Rivermen are attempting to win their sixth regular-season championship in nine years — and that includes a 2020-21 campaign in which they were dormant because of the pandemic.

It's arguably among the most dominating runs in hockey.

At any rate, the Rivermen are inching toward the end of the regular season. By the time they get back on the ice Friday, they will have played just five games in the last 26 days.

It's hard to sustain any momentum on a pace like that, and it has shown as the team has split its last six outings.

They will have to buckle up and knock off the rust with a three-game weekend series against Quad City, the middle of which will be on the road.

More:SPHL standings

The Rivermen sit in first place with eight games left over a span of 15 days starting Friday.

Peoria is four points ahead of second-place Birmingham, and three points ahead of third-place Huntsville.Fourth-place Evansville has 60 points, while fifth-place Knoxville has 61 points.

Yes, those numbers are out of order.

That's because the league's revised order of finish is now based on pointsmaking percentage, not points earned, a format forced when Vermilion County folded mid-season.

To make sure the remaining 10 teams all had their 28 home games intact, some teams ended up with 57 games under revised schedules, rather than the standard 56, as they had to serve as replacement visiting opponents.

Peoria, Birmingham and Huntsville have all clinched playoff spots under this system.

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The Rivermen have already locked out Pensacola, Fayetteville, Quad City, Macon and Vermilion County. They could clinch a top-three spot and home ice for the first round depending on outcomes this weekend with Evansville, Knoxville and Roanoke.

Like the Rivermen, all three of those teams have three-games, three-nights weekends on the ice.

Are they talking?

There has been no word on whether the Rivermen and Peoria Civic Center Authority are making progress on a multi-year lease for the team to play at Carver Arena.

Peoria City Council passed a $20.5 million plan on March 14 to finance additional repairs and renovations on a lengthy Civic Center list, and it was done with the expectation that a new ice plant would be installed in Carver Arena and a lease reached with the 41-year professional hockey team.

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The current Rivermen lease expires at the end of this season.

Let's hope Peoria City Council, which has a lot riding on this, is on top of this situation.

The Rivermen are not commenting, and Civic Center Authority chairman Yvonne Greer-Batton and board member Matt Bartolo did not respond to interview requests earlier this month.

A captain of record

Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman heads into the weekend with 394 career points in the SPHL, the most among all active players and one point shy of matching Trevor Karasiewicz for third all-time in league history.

Hagaman's next goal will move him into a tie with Lorne Misita for fourth all-time in SPHL history at 163.

And his 232 career assists are fifth all-time in the SPHL.

He is third all-time in games played with 416.

Welcome aboard, and so long

The Rivermen signed defenseman Maxwell Roth on Tuesday, and released him on Friday, taking a look at him in practice.

Peoria then signed left wing Vadim Vasjonkin, a survivor from the ill-fated Vermilion County team. He is 6-foot-3, 210 pounds and a native of Tallin, Estonia. He managed five goals and eight assists in 13 games with Vermilion County — the worst team in pro hockey — for nearly a point-a-game pace.

He also played for Birmingham this season and added three points in seven games there.

"We brought him in to take a look," Trudel said. "We're looking for a left-handed shot on our wing, and we're going to try a few of them.

"He skates well for a big man, and we want to see him within our structure in games. We really liked him when he was at Vermilion County, but they didn't have our structure. So let's see if he's a fit."

Vasjonkin has an interesting resume. He played on five Estonia World Juniors teams, four World Championship runs, played in Poland, Kazakhstan and Norway, and spent four years playing and serving as a captain at NCAA Division III Buffalo State.

A goalie goal in the SPHL

Birmingham goaltender Hayden Stewart became SPHL folklore on Saturday in his 3-0 shutout of Evansville on the road at Ford Center.

Stewart scored that final goal.

Facing an empty-net situation, Stewart fired the puck from near his left post down the ice and inside the Evansville right post with 13.6 seconds left in the game.

The SPHL says it is the first goal scored by a goaltender in league history.

River Readings

The Rivermen signed right wing Mike Gelatt to a second five-game tryout contract on Tuesday. … Peoria waived defenseman Roy Kanda and winger and Peoria native Nathan Chasteen, both picked up to plug a roster shortage last weekend. … The Rivermen activated defenseman Braydon Barker and winger-defenseman Austin Wisely from IR. … Lordanthony Grissom — a key rookie defenseman last season for the Rivermen championship run — was deleted from ECHL Greenville's roster on Friday and placed on the team's reserve list. … Rivermen winger Cayden Cahill — who earned his first ECHL call-up on March 11, to Toledo, played one game and now is on injured reserve. … The Rivermen's most likely first-round playoff opponents: Roanoke, Pensacola or Fayetteville. … Roanoke has the most favorable remaining schedule in the SPHL: eight games left, seven of which are on home ice. With that kind of finish, the Dawgs could jump up over Evansville or Knoxville and get into a No. 4 or No. 5 seed.

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: Talking Peoria Rivermen lease, SPHL playoffs, milestones and a goalie goal