'A runaway train': How 78 seconds brought an unforgettable comeback and sent the Peoria Rivermen to the SPHL finals

PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen let loose the hounds Friday to snatch Game 2 of the SPHL semifinals away from the Evansville Thunderbolts in a dramatic, late comeback.

The Rivermen, down a goal with 5:35 left, unleashed an attack that produced three goals in 78 seconds from Joe Drapluk, JM Piotrowski and Zach Wilkie to send Peoria to its fifth SPHL President's Cup Final since 2016.

The Rivermen ended up scoring four times in 3:11 to eliminate Evansville, 5-2, in front of a crowd of 3,132 that shook Carver Arena after being whipped into a frenzy in those final minutes.

Now they'll face Huntsville or Roanoke in a best-of-3 championship series that starts Thursday on the road.

"All season we've told each other we want to attack games like (mad) dogs," Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel told his team. "What a bunch of warriors you were when the chips were down. The big guys came up big in the biggest moments.

"We learned tonight that even if we're down, no matter how late it is, we can come back and do anything we damn well want to do."

And with that, Peoria-born captain Alec Hagaman pulled a dog mask over his face and drew a roar from the team as he let loose a celebratory bark -- a post-win tradition for this pack of dogs all season. Hagaman stepped to the center of the locker room and emphatically slammed a victory puck down into place on a Rivermen paddlewheel.

It's how this team is marking its victory march toward an SPHL title.

Two to go, as a best-of-3 championship series looms next.

"The first two periods weren't the way we'd normally want them to be," Hagaman said in a room filled with equal parts triumph and relief. "We talked about it coming out for the third period, what we had to do, knew we could do it.

"I admit it got us carried away. Thank God we had a three-goal lead, because I was out there on my last shift and I spent part of it looking around at the grandstand and waving my arms to pump them up. This is the last ride of my career. To have a memory like tonight is terrific, and to get to the finals and have a chance to play for a championship is all I hoped for."

It was an amazing final five minutes, as the crowd stood roaring through most of it.

The Rivermen were down, 2-1, after Evansville's Lincoln Hatten smoked a one-timer from the left hashmarks past goaltender Nick Latinovich at 8:00 of the third period.

SPHL Semifinal Game 2 box score: Rivermen 5, Evansville 2

Evansville had been masterful in limiting the Rivermen to one shot each time they challenged in their zone. One shot, then clear the zone and push the puck behind Peoria's defense.

"They did to us what we did to them in Game 1 (a 7-2 Peoria win)," Piotrowski said. "We didn't let negative things fester for us. After 55 minutes of doing the right thing, we finally got rewarded."

And what followed was a 78-second tidal wave of red lights, goal horns, frenzied fans and Rivermen players screaming in celebration. Evansville was frozen in the middle of it, just couldn't get out of the way.

The calm before the storm

The Rivermen had Evansville goaltender Cole Cece fighting for his playoff life in the first period, hammering him with 18 shots and a 1-0 lead on a pretty back door deflection from the right circle by center Alec Baer, off Hagaman's pass from the left point through two defenders at 6:27.

The Rivermen settled into a pattern of one-shot possessions and unfinished chances, though, and by the final two minutes of the second period Evansville climbed into a 1-1 tie on Scott Kirton's goal.

The Thunderbolts were helped by some questionable officiating in the second period, awarded five consecutive power plays on road ice, one of which was a five-on-three for 1:10 whistled on what looked like a clean, big-league hit by Peoria defenseman Renat Dadadzhanov near the Bolts' right corner.

Jason Lortie, one of two referees working the game, called a blow to the head penalty on that hit -- from his vantage point far down the ice on near the Rivermen blueline.

"All those tic-tac penalties cost us momentum and nearly the game," said Trudel, whose team faced five power plays on its home ice and earned only two in return. "Our team didn't know what to do after that, what those guys were going to call. We stopped hitting, stopped playing for a while."

It continued that way until Hatten's goal at the eight-minute mark of the third period gave Evansville a 2-1 lead and jolted the Rivermen and their fans into the reality that a winner-take-all Game 3 could be on the horizon.

"Then we slowly recovered, we knew we needed a goal, the crowd was loud like the place was packed," Trudel said. "It was a beautiful thing to watch."

"It was like a runaway train"

Peoria was still down in the third period, 2-1, as the clock melted down to 5-plus minutes left when everything changed.

Center Joe Drapluk, the heart and soul of Peoria's No. 1-ranked penalty-kill unit, had dug in to help erase that two-man advantage Evansville had been awarded in the second period. If the Thunderbolts had pushed the game to 3-1, the Rivermen might be facing elimination Sunday.

Instead, Drapluk, Piotrowski, Zach Wilkie and others cleaned it up.

And then something amazing happened.

"It had been a while since I won a faceoff, and a while since I had a nice rebound come right to my stick," Drapluk said. "Then I got both at once."

Drapluk settled in for a faceoff to Cece's stick side during four-on-four play. He won that draw, got the puck to Braydon Barker, who banged it from between the circles off Cece's right pad. Drapluk, a smart, veteran player who thrives on details and good decisions, had surged toward the net after the faceoff. Barker's rebound came right to him, and he put it past Cece for a lightning-strike tie at 14:25.

"I wanted to make sure I got it in," Drapluk said, grinning. "That goal was such a huge relief for all of us. It was crazy in the building after that. We didn't stop believing, and I just don't know how to explain it but I think I sensed Evansville suddenly was a little scared. I knew a goal was going to come.

"Hagaman kept us up on the bench throughout the period, he's such a great captain, and we just weren't going to give up."

Twenty-six seconds later, still in four-on-four play, Piotrowski became king for a day when he took the puck for a ride in the Evansville zone, skating along the right endline, working his way up the boards, cutting to the center of the slot and then muscling a backhander that surprised Cece on the stick side.

Bedlam as the crowd celebrated the game-winner.

"We call that traveling the Royal Road," said Piotrowski, of the path he took with the puck. "It's a set play we practice every day. That goaltender (Cece) is the MVP of that team over there. But I saw I had space there to take it to the middle of the zone, and I got a backhander low past his blocker.

"Drapluk scoring, that was such an inspiration for us, he gave us unbelievable energy. It's just a testimony to our team."

They weren't done. Wilke stepped into the puck like a power hitter swinging at a fat pitch, and drove a bullet from the high slot past Cece on a power play at 15:43 for a 4-2 lead. The first-team All-SPHL blueliner let out a whoop as he skated to the bench to collect high-fives.

Evansville, desperate, pulled Cece for an extra attacker with 4:01 left in the game, and the Rivermen put it out of reach with an empty-netter from Mike Gelatt at 17:36.

They skated off the rest of it, mobbed each other and then stood at center ice, joined by coaches Trudel and Eric Levine and team staff members, and raised their sticks in a salute to the fans.

An hour later, in a quiet, empty arena, Piotrowski had one final reflection.

"Those last few minutes, it was a runaway train," he said.

President's Cup schedule and ticket information

The No. 2 seed Peoria Rivermen advanced to the SPHL President's Cup Finals for the fifth time since 2016 by knocking out Evansville on Friday night.

The Rivermen will play a best-of-3 championship series against either No. 3 Roanoke or No. 5 Huntsville.

Those two teams play a decisive semifinal series game Saturday night.

Peoria was 3-0-0 against Roanoke during the regular-season, and 2-3-2 against Huntsville.

Regardless of which opponent reaches the championship series against Peoria, the schedule will be the same:

● Thursday, Game 1: Rivermen at Huntsville or Roanoke.

● Saturday, Game 2: Huntsville or Roanoke at Rivermen, Carver Arena, 7:15 p.m.

● Sunday, Game 3: Huntsville or Roanoke at Rivermen, Carver Arena, 5:15 p.m., if needed.

Tickets for the President's Cup Finals went on sale immediately after Peoria's clinching victory Friday night.

They are $28 for glass seating; $23 for Premium lower bowl; $17 for Pilot House, and $16 Upper Bowl.

Individual playoff game tickets are on sale now by calling the Rivermen (676-1040) at their Carver Arena offices.The Civic Center box office is open only Friday (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) or 90 minutes prior to game time.

River Readings

The Rivermen have been largely overlooked in the league awards that started rolling out this week. Defenseman Zach Wilkie received first-team all-SPHL honors and goaltender Nick Latinovich was second-team. ... Latinovich was No. 1-ranked among all SPHL goaltenders, and led the league in goals-against, wins and shutouts. But the first-team goaltending berth was awarded to Birmingham's Hayden Stewart, which indicates he will be named Goaltender of the Year as well. ... The other SPHL awards handed out so far include Broadcaster of the Year, Equipment Manager of the Year, All-Rookie Team and Coach of the Year. ... Rivermen center Alec Baer headed into Game 2 as the SPHL playoff scoring leader with 8 points, all on assists. His goal Friday was his first of the postseason. … A six-student group from the Henry-Senachwine school delivered a terrific national anthem during pre-game. … The Rivermen had a lot of family members in town for the game, including JM Piotrowski's mom and dad, Meirs Moore's grandfather and his uncle, Mike Gelatt's mother, and families of Cayden Cahill and Chase Spencer. ... With a 1-2 format for the best-of-3 SPHL President's Cup Final, it guarantees the President's Cup will be skated on Carver Arena ice next week. The question is, by which team? ... The Rivermen now are 26-1-3 at Carver Arena this season and have won 15 straight and 20 of their last 21 games on home ice.

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.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: SPHL playoffs: Peoria Rivermen head to championship series for fifth time since 2016