'It's legend now': How Peoria Rivermen won SPHL championship on home ice for first time in 25 years
Dave EminianPEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen became champions of the SPHL on a Sunday night in which Peoria fell in love with its hockey team.
The Rivermen beat the Huntsville Havoc, 5-1, before a rocking crowd of 5,902 at Carver Arena who saw a once-in-a-generation moment unfold on the ice as Peoria won the SPHL title for the second time in three years.
They saw Peoria-born captain and 10-year veteran Alec Hagaman play his final game and will the team to a championship on home ice.
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The 42-year Rivermen franchise won the title at Carver Arena on the 25th anniversary of the team's ECHL Kelly Cup championship that marked its last Cup win secured on home ice.
"Peoria filled that grandstand and helped us win a championship," said Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel, smoking a victory cigar. "We wanted to win a championship here in front of them, give them that experience, they deserve it so much.
"Peoria fell in love with us. And our team fell in love with them."
Peoria-born captain Alec Hagaman scored two goals, including the game's first goal and the dagger, delivered into an empty net at 17:54 of the third period, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Defenseman Meirs Moore scored two goals, including an empty-netter with 14 seconds left.
Peoria-born Mitch McPherson scored the game-winner in the first period. The Rivermen exited the period with a 3-1 lead and sat on it the rest of the way.
When it was over, the Rivermen became the first team in SPHL history to lose Game 1 of a best-of-3 championship series and come back to win the title. Seven teams before them tried and failed.
The Rivermen are also believed to be the first team in pro hockey history to win a championship on home ice at all three levels of the minors. They won once at Carver Arena in the old International Hockey League (class AAA), once in the ECHL (class AA) and now once in the SPHL (class A+).
"Alec Hagaman scored five goals in Game 2 and Game 3," Trudel said. "Five goals. He carried us on his back. You can't script that. It's so storybook. It's legend now."
Huntsville pressed Peoria hard in the second period and, in the Rivermen locker room, moments before the third period was to begin, Hagaman said: "One last ride."
It was a theme throughout the season for the Rivermen, who devoted this campaign to the 34-year-old Hagaman, the only Peoria-born captain in the franchise's history.
"Now I can say the word," Hagaman said in the emotional aftermath on the ice. "Retired. I'm retired. It doesn't hurt to say it anymore because I'm a champion."
When it ended, Hagaman threw his gloves and helmet high into the air and skated into the celebratory crush behind the net.
"Those final few minutes, after my empty-net goal, it hit me, 'This is it, we're going to get there and I'm done,' " Hagaman said. "I got to the bench and was trying not to cry, but I felt tears coming out. It was just a lot of emotion."
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Two-and-a-half hours after the game was over, Hagaman appeared in a darkened Carver Arena grandstand.
"I just wanted to take one last look at this place," he said, gazing up at the Rivermen banner on the Carver Arena wall where a list of retired numbers for the franchise are posted.
And then he was gone.
How the Rivermen finished it
The Rivermen struck for a 1-0 lead just 65 seconds after the opening faceoff when Hagaman worked his way across the middle of the slot and ripped a shot past goaltender Mike Robinson from the left hashmarks.
The crowd shook Carver Arena, but a couple minutes later, at 3:49, Huntsville tied it when Alex Kielczewski sent a rebound past goaltender Nick Latinovich, who had lost his stick.
The Rivermen went back up, 2-1, at 7:31 when Hagaman worked at the top of the slot, recovered his own blocked shot, and threaded a soft shot down the chute, where Mitch McPherson deflected it in from the right post for the game-winner.
It was a demoralizing goal for Huntsville's defense, which blocked four shots on the sequence and still gave up a goal.
The Rivermen stretched their lead to 3-1 at 12:42 when Moore moved up from the left point to the inside edge of the left circle and snapped a shot past Robinson, then skated to the far corner to slam the glass in celebration with the fans.
Huntsville turned it up a notch in the second period and pressed Peoria in its zone for much of it. A pivotal moment arrived at 8:43 when Huntsville center Dylan Stewart was awarded a penalty shot. But Rivermen goaltender Nick Latinovich stopped him with his right pad to hold the game at 3-1 after 40 minutes.
Peoria's defense went into lockdown mode in the third period and the clock became an asset.
Huntsville, desperate, pulled Robinson for an extra attacker with nearly three minutes left in the third period, and Hagaman scooped the puck off the boards and filled the empty net at 17:54 for 4-1.
Moore added another empty-netter with 14 seconds left and the celebration was on.
"I was just looking around, it was beautiful," Hagaman said. "I feel lucky to have played these last two nights in front of crowds like this. They were amazing. Without them, we can't play like this. With them, we are champions."
The final horn
Crowd standing, the final horn blaring, the Rivermen mobbed each other on the ice, Hagaman and Trudel initially standing back and taking it all in.
"You helped us win the Cup," Hagaman told the crowd, after grabbing the arena microphone. "Let's Go!"
He pointed to his family in the grandstand and thumped his heart, stepped up to the table and was presented with the SPHL Playoff MVP trophy by commissioner Doug Price, and then, finally, hoisted the President's Cup.
Hagaman skated it a full lap around the ice, then turned it over to goaltender Nick Latinovich, with center Alec Baer and center JM Piotrowski and all the team members getting a chance to skate with it while the crowd cheered and cameras flashed as Queen's "We Are The Champions" played overhead.
"My teammates, my coaches, my family and friends and the fans they are all part of this journey for me and how we reached this night," Hagaman said. "I'll never forget this night. It will stick with me forever."
River Readings
The Rivermen will have a celebration with the public in Carver Arena sometime next week. Details are being worked out. … Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman set SPHL career postseason records for most goals (26) and games played (53). … Rivermen center Alec Baer had four assists in Game 2 Saturday to set the SPHL all-time single playoff season record for assists (14). ... The 2024 President's Cup Finals between the Rivermen and Huntsville marked the first SPHL championship series to go the maximum number of games since 2018 — when Huntsville won the Cup in Peoria. ... The Rivermen finished the season 28-1-3 at Carver Arena and on a 16-game home win streak. ... The Rivermen practiced in Huntsville on the morning of Game 1 of the series, where an arena scoreboard had been activated and showed a 10-1 Huntsville score over Peoria.
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.