PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen scored four unanswered goals to rally to a lead and literally held it until the final fraction of a second Thursday in Game 1 of the best-of-3 first-round SPHL playoff series against Quad City.
After a wild sequence in the final moments of regulation, the Rivermen rebounded to win, 5-4, in sudden-death overtime on Jordan Ernst's second goal of the game at 4:48.
But what a journey on the way to overtime.
The Storm got a power play on a rare penalty call — a faceoff delay violation on Peoria center Alec Baer — and pulled goaltender Brent Moran to attack 6-on-4 in the final 65 seconds.
They stayed alive when Storm scoring ace Leif Mattson camped on the backside of the play and fired the puck into an open net to tie the game, 4-4, as time expired. No red light came on, just the green lockout light that indicates time was expired. Officials huddled, awarded the goal and put :00.1 on the clock.
Replays showed the puck did cross the goal line in time. The game moved on into overtime.
The Rivermen lead the best-of-3 series 1-0. Game 2 is Friday in Quad City.
Here's that game-tying goal for QC as time expired. Replay shows puck crossed the line before green lockout light came on. The goal was good. The situation officials put the Rivermen in was not. pic.twitter.com/n8DtQGNbSA
— Dave Eminian (@icetimecleve) April 11, 2025
Quad City took a 1-0 lead at 5:45 of the first period when right wing Devin Sanders open shot from the left hashmarks rebounded into the low slot and went back to Sanders for his own putback.
The Rivermen fell behind 2-0 at 9:35 when Sanders put away an easy dunk from the right post off Mattson's pass out of the left corner through the doorstep.
Peoria drew a pair of power plays after that but could not finish against Quad City goaltender Moran.
Quad City extended its lead to 3-0 at 7:29 of the second period when Peoria couldn't clear the front of the net and Brodie Girod skated to the paint and batted in a loose puck that had rebounded off Latinovich.
But the Rivermen snapped out of it and turned the game with a pair of goals in 83 seconds midway through the period, and went on to tie it by the end of the session.
Ernst, who hit a post earlier, skated down the slot and unleashed a low shot inside the left post to make it 3-1 at 9:32.
The veteran 37-goal scorer skated back to the Rivermen bench, gesturing to his teammates with his hand as if to tell them to "get it going."
