PEORIA, Ill. – Friday night in Peoria was a turn back the clock night and a nod to the team that brought hockey to the River City, the Peoria Blades. The Blades played in the Continental Hockey League from 1972-1982. In those 10 seasons the Blades won the title 3 years in a row (1976, 1977, 1978) and were the runner up in 1975 and 1981. The team would play all their home games on an outdoor rink until folding after the 1982 season when the IHL would place an expansion team, the Peoria Rivermen, in the newly built Peoria Civic center where the team still call home. Now to the game at hand.
The Blades would come out strong and score just 29 seconds into the game on a shot by Jordan Ernst. With that goal teddy bears would come raining down onto the ice as it was also Peoria’s annual Teddy Bear toss night. Tristian Trudel and Renat Dadadzhanov would pick up the assists. The Havoc would respond though with a goal by Jack Jaunich to tie the game up just 7 min later. Jordan Ernst wasn’t done as he would once again light the lamp with his second with 7:02 left in the first period, the assists would go to Michael McChesney and Zach Wilkie. The Havoc would go on the powerplay late in the first and take advantage with a goal by Conner Fries with 3:02 left in the period.
Before the start of the second period the Rivermen would recognize former Blades players at center ice including Mike Olson, whose father, Mark Olson, (who dropped the puck before the game) was the Blades coach and general manager. Speaking of the 2nd period, the Havoc would take the lead a little over 3 minutes into the period on a goal by Buster Larson and that’s all Havoc and goalie Brian Wilson would need. Wilson would turn into a brick wall after Ernst’s 2nd goal as Peoria would pepper him with 42 shots on the night with Wilson stopping 40 of them and never really being tested. The Blades defense did play really well, despite the loss, as they only gave up 12 shots on net but the offense just couldn’t get going. Reigning SPHL player of the month Colby Muise would take the loss for the Blades as their 6 game win streak would come to an end.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Jeremie Allen who was there to capture the action.
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