Why the Peoria Rivermen played a game in front of 7,000 screaming schoolkids

PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen didn't get a win on the ice, but they certainly got one in the grandstand Thursday with the re-birth of their morning game aimed to bring in area schoolkids.

Dubbed Rivermen Education Day and underwritten by Eureka College, the event drew 6,878 to Carver Arena, nearly all of them school kids. They saw the Rivermen score the first two goals of the game, but fade to a 4-3 loss 67 seconds into sudden-death overtime against rival Quad City.

Peoria remained alone in first place in the SPHL standings, and will have a rematch with the Storm at Carver Arena on Friday.

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73 schools attended the game

Many of those kids were seeing their first pro hockey game. Afterward, Rivermen players and staff reflected on their own childhood experiences with hockey.

"To be able to see this event come back from COVID, survive that downtime, it's just awesome," Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers said. "We're in here surrounded by thousands of kids. We want that connection, it's something every team wants to build and this is a huge day for us.

"Some of these schools came from as far as 90 minutes away to be part of this. Our staff did such a terrific job setting this game up, contacting all these schools, I'm proud of the job they did. For some of these kids this is the first hockey game they've ever seen, and we're proud we could be the ones to get them here."

Webster Elementary School (Rushville) made the drive. So did Chaddix Junior High (Normal), Kewanee High School (and junior high and grade school) and Ohio Grade School.

Peoria High had students at the game, as did Morton High School, Pekin High School, Limestone High School, Dunlap High School … 73 schools in all.

'I had never been to a hockey game'

Paul Dooley, Abby Blasek, Morghan James and Simera Rickey, all 10-year-olds from St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Peoria, were all watching their first game.

"I've never been to one," Dooley said. "What do I want to see? A fight for sure. But they really seem to love the game, they are playing their hearts out."

Blasek and James both liked watching the skating, liked the way the ice sprayed with starts and stops, and thought the game was really cool.

"I love watching it," James said. "I don't know how they can do that."

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Rickey noticed something else: "I'm watching the way they all work together," she said. "They all know what each of them are doing, it's really good."

Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman scored the game's first goal, while his wife, Emily, who is dean of students at Norwood School Dist. 63, had her students looking on.

"She tells us all the time about the Rivermen and Alec, he's the captain of the team," said Aleyria Steele, 8, a third-grader at Norwood Elementary. "We've never been to a game before, and this is such a fun day for all of us."

Her third-grade classmate, Mi'Airrah Pate-Henderson, 9, was excited about the players' skating.

"I really like it," she said. "They can skate so well. I've never been to a game and I think it's great to be here."

What they saw on the ice

The kids saw Hagaman split the defense and walk in on goaltender Bailey Brkin, faking him and then wrapping the puck in around his left pad at 9:08 of the first period.

The arena noise, already a non-stop crashing of sound from excited kids, went up a notch when the traditional Rivermen goal celebration horns launched.

The Rivermen faced a huge penalty challenge midway through the second period when winger Jordan Ernst was assessed a five-minute major elbowing penalty and ejected, and then teammates Zach Wilkie and JM Piotrowski followed to the box with minor infractions.

It left Quad City with four minutes of 5-on-3 power play, but the Rivermen killed off all of it to protect their lead.

They earned a 5-on-3 power play of their own, and after the first part of it expired, took a 2-0 lead seven seconds into the second period when newly-acquired Carter Roo scored.

But Quad City scored four of the last five goals to snatch the game away from the defending champions. Austin Wisely helped the Rivermen resurface briefly for a 3-2 lead midway through the third period, but Peoria gave up three third-period goals to slip into overtime.

In the sudden-death session, Hagaman took a long feed and skated in on a breakaway, but Brkin got enough of the puck to leave it laying on the ice in front of the goal line.

Play went the other way, and Matt Ustaski beat Rivermen goaltender Eric Levine on the short side from a sharp angle at the endline to end the game.

"Players are such a creature of habit, and some guys, you can't take them out of their routine," Trudel said of the morning game. "But I don't where our forwards were today. They didn't bring their brains to this game."

'I still have the bobblehead'

The Rivermen certainly felt the school kids presence in the grandstand Thursday.

"My first hockey game, I was 5 or 6," Rivermen center Alec Baer said. "My dad and me and my brother went to a Minnesota game, and we got down there to see Mike Modano and I got my picture with him."

Rivermen defenseman Zach Wilkie's first hockey game was a trip to see the Blackhawks.

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"I was 8," he said. "The Blackhawks were kind of down in the dumps then at United Center. It was a game against the Red Wings, and I was sitting right on the glass. You never forget it."

Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel was playing youth hockey in Canada when his team went to a tournament in Quebec at the old Le Colisée, home of the NHL Nordiques.

"Our team got tickets to a game between Quebec and Pittsburgh," Trudel said. "I was 12. I remember the game well because Mario Lemieux scored four goals and never backchecked once."

This game has a history

The first student day home game in the Rivermen's 41-year franchise history was a 3-1 win over San Antonio at Carver Arena in front of 5,117 (including 2,600 students) on Nov. 18, 2010.

That was in the team's AHL era, under parent club St. Louis, and the event was called the Rivermen Faceoff Field Trip.

The Blues staged two more: a 6-3 win over Milwaukee in front of 7,082 on Jan. 25, 2012. And a 2-0 win over Chicago in front of 7,832 on Jan. 24, 2013.

The game came back in the Rivermen's SPHL era when 4,481 saw a 2-1 win over Quad City on Dec. 18, 2018.

The name shifted to Education Day after that, and drew 6,889 to a 2-1 victory over Knoxville on Dec. 17, 2019.The sixth running packed in 6,878 on Thursday for the 4-3 overtime loss to Quad City.

"It's something I wish I could have done as a kid, have a field trip to a game like this," Rivermen captain Hagaman said. "Those kids are keeping it loud up there, and it sure looked fun."

River Readings

The Rivermen signed center-winger Andrew Durham, down from ECHL Allen (16 games, 1 goal), before the game. He's 6-3, 210 and played college hockey for Army and Wisconsin-Superior. He's expected to join the lineup for Peoria's rematch against Quad City on Friday. … Rivermen winger Mitch McPherson had a collision in the left corner of the Quad City zone in the opening minute of the game, and left with concussion-type symptoms. … Rivermen winger Carter Roo took a stick to the face and missed half a period while getting stitches. No penalty was called on the play. … The Rivermen 7:15 p.m. rematch at Carver Arena with Quad City will be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Night. The Rivermen will wear special jerseys themed after the Nickelodeon characters, and auction them after the game. ... The Rivermen said Jefferson Primary school in Pekin brought 325 students to the game. Peoria High School had 290, Farmington Central Junior High brought 245 and Norwood Primary had 225. ... Peoria-born winger Nathan Chasteen, who played 14 games for the Rivermen title team last season, will likely sign with the team on Friday to help out a shorthanded roster in a rematch against Quad City at Carver Arena.

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: Peoria Rivermen hockey celebrate education day with 7,000 kids