PEORIA, Ill. – After a successful regular season, the Peoria Rivermen are shifting their focus to defending their President’s Cup title.
The Rivermen are the top seed in the Southern Professional Hockey League playoffs, starting this week. The Rivermen finished as the top team in the league with 40 wins.
The Rivermen will host a familiar foe in the first round, their rivals the Quad City Storm. Game 1 is scheduled for Thursday night at Carver Arena, while Game 2 is Friday in Moline. If a Game 3 is necessary, it would be Sunday afternoon back in Peoria.
Broadcaster Jason Ruff says out of all the potential opponents for Peoria, Quad City could be the most formidable.
“The Rivermen and the Storm have played each other a lot,” Ruff said. “It’s the hardest thing in professional hockey, or in any stage of hockey, to beat a team three, four, five times in a row, which is what the Rivermen will have to do in this series.”
The Rivermen defeated Quad City, 3-2, on Saturday to close out the regular season.
Ruff also anticipates the series to be highly emotional and physical with the rivalry involved. He also says goaltending on both sides will be one of the biggest factors in who wins the series.
The Rivermen announced its playoff roster earlier in the week, with 12 forwards, six defensemen, and two goaltenders.
Some of the more notable players returning to defend the President’s Cup include captain and forward Alec Baer, and goaltender Nick Latinovich. But Ruff says the team will be relying on a younger group of players in the playoff run.
“We have 12 first-year guys in professional hockey, including all six of the defencemen,” Ruff said.
Ruff says the younger players, usually from college, are most used to having their seasons end by April. He says they’ll need to embrace the challenges of a playoff run and lean on them to have success.
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