PEORIA, Ill -The final battle for the President’s Cup in the SPHL is about to begin and it represents the Heart of Georgia versus the Illinois Heartland. The Macon Mayhem and Peoria Rivermen face off in a best-of-three series that starts Friday night for a 
game in Peoria before moving to Macon on Sunday and, if needed, Monday.
Macon arrives having won the regular season points championship with 80. The Mayhem were nearly bumped off by #8 seed Columbus in the first round, but survived to move on and sweep Pensacola in two games.
Peoria tied for second place with 75 points but is the #3 seed due to tiebreakers. The Rivermen swept Knoxville in the first round and bested Huntsville in three games to advance to the championship series.
Looking for meaningful clues in the regular season statistics doesn’t bear much fruit.
Penalty wise, Macon averages just over 16 PIM and Peoria just over 15 ½ PIM. Macon has an advantage on paper when it comes to the power play but Peoria has been strong late in season and in playoffs that it is hard to give an edge, here. Peoria is a little better on the penalty kill. The mantra for both teams will be to stay out of the penalty box during this series.
When it comes to goals for during the regular season, Peoria ranked #2 in the league while Macon is close behind at #3. It is the same for goals against. Both teams ranked closely in shots for, Peoria #4, Macon #5. Peoria held a significant advantage in shots for, posting the second-most shots on goal, as a team, in the SPHL this season while Macon ranked near the bottom at #6. All other things being equal, and in scoring they certainly are, shots on goal represent opportunities to score, and thus a slight edge goes to Peoria.
Of course, scoring talk leads to a discussion about the net-minders. Three of the top five goaltenders in the SPHL regular season are featured in the series. Storm Phaneuf lead the league with a 2.06 goals-against average is the starter for Peoria. Tyler Parks is his very capable backup, sporting the #4 spot in league goaltending with a 2.39 GAA. Finishing the season in the #3 spot was Jordan Ruby who sported a 2.32 GAA for the first-place Mayhem. Troy Passingham is the door-opener-in-pads for Macon.
Over the course of the playoffs – 5 games for each team – Ruby has allowed 1.53 GAA while Phaneuf has allowed 2.12 GAA.
Macon has home ice advantage in this series, with game #2 and #3 (if needed) . Peoria was better at home than on the road, Macon was 40pts each.
Head-to-head this year, Peoria was 3-0-1 and Macon 1-2-1. Peoria visited Macon the second week of the year when the Peoria roster was, to use a polite term, in flux, and posted a win and the OTL. Macon came to Peoria in January, only to be swept by the Rivermen in a pair of games.
Macon with home ice has advantage and it may be a factor in this series. While Macon was as good at home as it was away (40 points for each), Peoria was better at home than on the road.
Throughout the regular season, Peoria has been a bit soft. When it comes to scoring, in the second period. Macon has a similar problem in the 3rd period.
So far, over the five playoff games, Macon has scored a dozen goal on 203 shots for a 5.9% success rate. Peoria has doubled that scoring – 24 goals – on 167 shots for 14.4% success rate.
This all adds up to what should be a very competitive series. We stand a very good chance of having SPHL hockey on May 1 for all the proverbial marbles.
Keys to the game for both teams are as similar as the teams:
- Stay out of the penalty box. Macon has scored on three of seven PP chances in the playoffs. Peoria has converted half, five of ten, of their opportunities. Expect both teams to take advantage when the other team is short-handed.
- Score first. Grab the momentum and keep the other team down.
- Finish. Sixty minutes…maybe more. This would be a bad time to take a shift…any shift…off. A dumb penalty or a bad change can cost your team the championship. Whoever is the sharpest and can stay the sharpest the longest has the best chance of winning.
How does it add up on paper? Ask the Chicago Blackhawks right now about how much that matters.
It has been a great sophomore season for Macon. They have done very well and have all the tools to take the Cup.
After two seasons of winning the regular season point championship, the Rivermen fell just short of the President’s Cup again last year. This year, Coach Trudel treated the first month or two of the season as an extended try-out camp, building a team for this exact purpose.
It may take three games, but the Peoria Rivermen will raise the Cup.
All images courtesy of Jeremie.Allen@prohockeynews.com
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