Heartbreaking for Rivermen again –2016-17 Season Reviews — SPHL

A great playoff run sadly resulted in another heartbreaking finish as the Peoria Rivermen reached the league championship series, but for a second straight season, watched another squad raise the President’s Cup for a second straight year.

The Rivermen overcame a slow start and finished the season with a record of 32-13-11, tied for second place, just five points behind the 37-13-6 Macon Mayhem and even with the 36-17-3 Fayetteville FireAntz (Now known as the Fayetteville Marksmen). Fayetteville got the nod for second place in final standings based on wins.

The other Midwest-based team, the expansion Evansville Thunderbolts endured the growing pains normal for a first-season team, wrapping up the season with a record of 14-32-10 for 38 points and held down the bottom spot in the 10-team league.

The Thunderbolts missed the post season along with the league’s other ‘newbie’, the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs in ninth spot.

The third seeded Rivermen opened the post season with a Best of Three series against the sixth place Knoxville Ice Bears and advanced with a 4-1 win on home ice followed by a 5-1 win at Knoxville.

In the semis, the Rivermen retained home ice advantage thanks to a first round upset by defending Pensacola Ice Pilots who entered the party as the seventh seed but then swept the second place FireAntz in the opening round.

The Huntsville Havoc, seeded fourth made things a little tougher in the second round, bouncing back from a 5-2 defeat in Peoria with a 4-3 margin in its only home game of the set. The series shifted back to Peoria for the final game, won by the Rivermen 7-3.

Meanwhile the Mayhem wrapped up a second-round sweep against the Ice Pilots after being pushed to the three-game limit by the Columbus Cottonmouths in the opening round.

The series opened a Peoria with the final two games slated for Macon. Mayhem opened with a 2-1 win at Peoria and then captured another 2-1 edge in Macon to claim the President’s Cup.

Statistical Leaders

The Rivermen and Thunderbolts were shut out of the Top 10 scorers list. The best season offensively for a Midwest-based team was Jeff Jones of the Rivermen with 43 points (20g, 23a), good enough for 14^th overall on the Scoring list.

Leading the league overall was Tayler Thompson, a young Saskatchewan native who led Fayetteville with 60 points (18g. 42a) with Mike Moran, a Massachusetts native finishing as the runner up with 53 points (29g, 24a) for Mississippi.

Cody Dion, 27, from Colorado, helped the Rivermen with 39 points (24g, 15a) and top Thunderbolts shooter was Cody Dion, 29, from Alberta with 38 points (21g, 17a).

Defensively, Storm Phaneuf, 21, from Quebec led both the Rivermen and the league with a 2.06 Goals Against Average. Phaneuf appeared in 23 games and picked up 13 wins for the Rivermen with three shutouts and a Save Percentage of .924.

Sean Bonar of Fayetteville was the runner up with a 2.07 GAA and a .927 SP. He played in 49 games, winning 32, including four shutouts.

Tyler Parks, 25, from Imperial, MO was ranked fourth among goaltenders, starting 21 games for the Rivermen and collecting eight wins with a 2.12 GAA and a SP of .925. Parks also played four games in a Thunderbolts jersey in 2016-17.

Tanner Milliron, 26, from New Richmond, WI, was the Thunderbolts’ top keeper, appearing in 38 games. He collected 11 wins and two of them were shutouts. Milliron posted a 3.10 GAA and a SP of .910.

League Awards

Both teams were also shutout of major Individual awards this season. Fayetteville ended up with three honors as Bonar captured the Goaltender of the Year Award and the league’s MVP honor while Thompson was the Leading Scorer. Louis Be lisle from Pensacola was named as Defenseman of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors went to Moran.

Kevin Kerr was named Coach of the Year for his work behind the Macon bench in addition to the team winning both the President’s Cup and William B. Coffey Trophy as the top team through the regular season.

Phaneuf was named Goaltender for the all-SPHL Third Team.

Changes for 2017-18

There will be no change among the Midwest-based teams and the league itself will remain at 10 teams as the Columbus Cottonmouths will be sitting out the 2017-18 season while looking for new ownership to bring the team back into the fold the following season. Meanwhile, the Birmingham Bulls will join the league, resurrecting the former team that at one time played in the World Hockey Association.

Season is scheduled to start on Oct. 20.