The Peoria Rivermen are a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. They play in Peoria, Illinois, United States at the Carver Arena. The team replaced an

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

franchise of the same name that was purchased by the

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and moved out of Peoria to

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the ...

. The Rivermen are one of the few teams in the SPHL outside the southern United States, along with the Bloomington Thunder (2013–14 season only), the

Evansville Thunderbolts The Evansville Thunderbolts are a minor league ice hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The team plays at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The team replaced the Evansville IceMen of the ECHL. History During the 2015� ...

(since the 2016–17 season), and the

Quad City Storm The Quad City Storm is a professional minor league hockey team to begin play in the 2018–19 season as a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League. The team is based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa, with home games at the Vi ...

(since the 2018–19 season). Due to the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the Rivermen are one of several SPHL teams to not participate in the 2020–21 season.

History

On May 13, 2013, it was reported by the ''

Peoria Journal Star The ''Journal Star'' is the major daily newspaper for Peoria, Illinois, and surrounding area. First owned locally, then employee-owned, it became a Copley Press entity in 1996. In 2007, the paper was sold to Fairport, New York-based GateHouse M ...

'' 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 The Bloomington Thunder were a minor professional ice hockey team that was a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League. Based in Bloomington, Illinois, the Thunder played their home games at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum, located in downto ...

of the struggling

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

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. 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 minor professional hockey team in the coming year. Both teams were owned by Illinois Pro Sports, LLC. The Thunder would be shut down after one season when another ownership group obtained an expansion team in the junior

United States Hockey League The United States Hockey League (USHL) is the top junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. The league consists of 16 active teams located in the midwestern United States, for players between the ages of 16 and 21. The USHL is strictl ...

for Bloomington, isolating the Rivermen in the north. In 2017, the majority ownership of the Rivermen was sold to CSH International Inc., the same owners of the Bloomington USHL franchise, with the former owners, Bart Rogers and John Butler, staying on with minority ownership. On May 3, 2022, the Rivermen beat the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs in game four of the

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finals in overtime to win the franchise's first President's Cup.

References

External links

Official website
{{Illinois Sports Southern Professional Hockey League teams Ice hockey clubs established in 2013 Ice hockey teams in Illinois