| Peoria Rivermen | |
 | |
| City: | Peoria, Illinois |
|---|---|
| League: | Southern Professional Hockey League |
| Founded: | 2013 |
| Home Arena: | Carver Arena |
| Colors: | Navy, Red, Gold, White
|
| Owner(s): | Illinois Pro Sports, LLC |
| General Manager: | David Holt |
| Media: | WCDD (107.9 FM) Peoria Journal Star |
| Franchise history | |
| 2013–present: | Peoria Rivermen |
The Peoria Rivermen are a professional ice hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. They play in Peoria, Illinois, USA at the Carver Arena. The team is replacing an American Hockey League franchise of the same name that was purchased by the Vancouver Canucks and moved out of Peoria to Utica, New York. [1][2]
History[]
On May 13, 2013, it was reported by the Journal Star that after being told the city would no longer have an AHL team, former Rivermen executives John Butler and Bart Rogers and former Rivermen owner Bruce Saurs announced that they had applied for admission into the Southern Professional Hockey League in an attempt to save hockey in Peoria. The SPHL is a low-minor hockey league with teams mostly based in the southeastern United States. Butler and Rogers' plan also included for the group to purchase the Bloomington Blaze of the struggling Central Hockey League and also move them to the SPHL. There was an SPHL Board of Governors and franchise general managers emergency conference call scheduled for the morning of May 14, 2013 to decide on the admission of the Rivermen and the Blaze.[3]
On May 15, 2013, it was officially announced that the team had been accepted into the SPHL, along with the newly-named Bloomington Thunder, ending the uncertainty of whether Peoria would have a hockey team in the coming year. They and the Thunder are the only franchises in the SPHL outside of the southern United States. They are now the only SPHL team outside the southern United States as the Thunder folded after the 2013-14 season
Season-by-season records[]
| Season | GP | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Finish | Post season | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013–14 | 56 | 30 | 18 | 8 | 68 | 154 | 144 | 3rd of 10, SPHL | Eliminated in first round | |||
| 2014–15 | 56 | 36 | 17 | 3 | 75 | 186 | 149 | 1st of 8, SPHL | Eliminated in first round | |||
| 2015–16 | 56 | 39 | 12 | 5 | 83 | 196 | 125 | 1st of 9, SPHL | Lost in final | |||
| 2016-17 | 56 | 32 | 13 | 11 | 75 | 182 | 145 | 3rd of 10, SPHL | Lost in final | |||
| 2017-18 | 56 | 38 | 13 | 5 | 81 | 211 | 154 | 1st of 10, SPHL | Lost in final | |||
| 2018-19 | 56 | 40 | 7 | 9 | 89 | 201 | 123 | 1st of 10, SPHL | Lost in quarterfinals | |||
| 2019-20 | 46 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 71 | 150 | 105 | T-1st of 10, SPHL | Season cancelled prior to end of season | |||
| 2020-21 | Opted of of play due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||||||
| 2021-22 | 56 | 38 | 11 | 7 | 83 | 219 | 126 | 3rd | Won Championship | |||
| 2022-23 | 57 | 39 | 14 | 4 | 82 | 217 | 137 | 1st | Lost in Semifinals | |||
| 2023-24 | 56 | 37 | 14 | 5 | 79 | 192 | 139 | 2nd | Won Championship | |||
References[]
- ↑ Eminian, Dave (2013-03-29). Blues moving Rivermen out of Peoria at end of season - Peoria, IL. pjstar.com. Retrieved on 2013-10-23.
- ↑ Utica Comets to join AHL in 2013-14. American Hockey League. Retrieved on 14 June 2013.
- ↑ Eminian, Dave (2013-05-13). Peoria to join SPHL under former Rivermen management team - Peoria, IL. pjstar.com. Retrieved on 2013-10-23.
External links[]
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Peoria Rivermen (SPHL). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |