After 14 years, Peoria Rivermen finally lose a home game to rival Quad City

PEORIA — The Quad City Storm finally had the Peoria Rivermen's number on Friday in an SPHL game.

Maybe the longest head-to-head winning streak in pro hockey came to an end when the Storm hung on to beat the Rivermen, 2-1, before 2,398 at Carver Arena.

That ended an amazing run by the Rivermen in a rivalry that has spanned the SPHL and the American Hockey League.

The Rivermen beat Quad City 19 consecutive times at Carver Arena, and were 20-1-1 all-time here.

Until Friday.

"We owned that team all these years," said Rivermen veteran goaltender Eric Levine, who has played on both sides of the rivalry. "When I was with Quad City, it was always daunting playing Peoria. The Rivermen would spend 70% of the game in our zone. We'd hang on for our lives and hope to get points.

Well tonight, they came in here, and they played better than we did. They wanted it more. Their goaltender was better than me.

These games were always automatic points for Peoria. But tonight, it became a true rivalry."

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More: HIGHLIGHTS: QC 2, Rivermen 1

By the numbers

For the record, the Rivermen won 19 straight in Carver Arena against Quad City and were 20-1-1 until Friday's loss.

Peoria, home and away against Quad City in the SPHL and AHL eras combined, is now 35-9-2 in the series.

Read it again: 35-9-2.

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Friday marked Quad City's first win in Peoria since a 4-3 decision in the AHL here on Dec. 8, 2007.

That's so long ago that Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel played in that game for Peoria, which was then St. Louis Blues primary affiliate.

"I remember those games," Trudel said. "This series with these two teams has mostly gone our way. Not tonight, though. They are a gritty team, they've got a lot of guys back who have played together, and I think they are a little bit ahead of the league right now because of it."

They play each other 15 more times this season.

View from Quad City

Dave Pszenyczny transitioned from captain of the Rivermen to coach at Quad City, so he's played on one side of the rivalry and coached on the other.

Neither team played last season, both opting out because of COVID protocols from the state. When they met at the end of the 2018-19 season, Pszenyczny had to present the Rivermen with a trophy the teams commissioned for the season-long series, called the "Cold War on I-74 Trophy." The 2019-20 season was never completed, so it's been with Peoria ever since. It was parked in the Rivermen locker room before the game Friday night.

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"I was watching that last game we played here (in 2019-20) when we prepped for this week," Pszenyczny said. "I know the history. We have some guys who are pretty green-eyed when it comes to this series, don't really know who Peoria is. This is a different team.

"We got great goaltending from Bailey Brkin, and Levine was really good for them."

How it happened

Quad City took a 1-0 lead on a power play 2:15 after the opening faceoff. Levine reached across with his stick to block a wraparound attempt at the right post, but play continued and Marcus Ortiz eventually chopped a backhander in off a rebound from the left side of the crease.

Levine made two tremendous saves to hold the game at 1-0 during a Quad City power play early in the second period.

Peoria defenseman Skyler Smutek made a sliding breakup of a pass off a two-on-one break midway through the period.

But Quad City chipped out a 2-0 lead at 16:26 when Matt Stoia deflected in Taylor Pryce's lob from the left point.

The Rivermen get on the board with a goal from Mathieu Cloutier, who tucked a rebound inside the right post as he skated past the net on a power play at 12:33 of 3rd period.

Peoria went on a power play in the last 97 seconds and pulled Levine for an extra attacker to create a six-on-four, but could not tie.

River Readings

The Rivermen put veteran winger Cody Dion on 21-day IR before the game Friday. ... The Rivermen signed right wing Joe Deveny and Peoria native Nathan Chasteen before the game. Deveny, 27, played four seasons at NCAA Division-III SUNY-Canton. He spent the last two seasons in the SPHL with Birmingham and in the low-A FPHL with Watertown and Port Huron. Chasteen, 27, played for the junior hockey Peoria Mustangs. ... The Quad City roster included former Rivermen Tommy Tsicos, Joe Sova, Connor Fries and Peter Di Salvo, plus head coach Dave Pszenyczny.

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. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Rivermen hockey: After 14 years, Peoria loses home game to Quad City