Peoria Rivermen answer the bell in SPHL game with 9 combined goals, 8 combined ejections
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PEORIA — It was four straight games against each other in a span of 14 days for the Peoria Rivermen and Pee Dee IceCats on Friday at Carver Arena.
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And that was one game and one day too many.
To little surprise, the Rivermen and Cats clashed in a third-period brawl that resulted in eight player ejections.
And to even less surprise, the Rivermen hammered expansion Pee Dee, 7-2, in an SPHL game before 4,191.
Connor Szmul and Will Redick each scored two goals, Mike McChesney notched the game-winner and Carson Jones had three assists as the Rivermen improved to 3-1-1 and fifth place.
Peoria drove Pee Dee goaltender Parker Rutherford out of the net with five goals on 12 shots in the first 34 minutes.
The Rivermen penalty kill erased five more challenges and remained at 100% for the season on 23 of 23.
What happened at 11:02?
The Rivermen took out a Pee Dee player in the left corner and a flurry of counter-retaliations escalated into 10 fighting penalties and nine game misconducts, including two ejections to Peoria’s Daniel Chartrand.
Rivermen players Chartrand, Braydon Barker, Kylar Fenton and Alfred Rotiroti were ejected.
Pee Dee players Cole Bishop, Danil Federov, Kaydn Fennell and Vadim Frolov were ejected.
The 127 penalty minute sequence was capped when Rotiroti skated to center ice, squared off with Fennell, and dropped him with one punch.
Rivermen make a trade
The Peoria Rivermen made their first trade of the 2026-27 SPHL season on Friday, a few hours before hosting Pee Dee in a rematch at Carver Arena.
The Rivermen got defenseman Carter Poulin from defending champion Evansville for future considerations.
Poulin, 22, is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound left-shooting blueliner who played 15 games over parts of two seasons for Evansville, including 10 last year with the SPHL championship team, although he was not part of their postseason.
River Readings
High-scoring veteran winger Jordan Ernst, who earned legendary status with the Peoria Rivermen while helping them to two SPHL championships before announcing his retirement last summer, has come out of retirement and signed with Monroe of the low-A FPHL. Monroe's roster includes former Rivermen center Carlos Fornaris and ex-Peoria defenseman Paul Arnott, the latter playing at age 39. ... Former Rivermen defenseman Josh Martin also retired over the summer, but has also come back and signed with Monroe, joining ex-Peoria players Ernst, Fornaris and Arnott. … Monroe is battling immigration paperwork issues for its Canadian players, and on Nov. 2 sent eight players back to the border.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports editor. Reach via email at [email protected] and follow him on X @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Rivermen answer the bell in SPHL game with 9 combined goals, 8 combined ejections