Nice story about the Peoria Rivermen who were sold down the River. I get a chance to attend a lot of these AHL games and they are a ton of fun. A throwback to the 50's when athletes were normal people and not moronic celebrities and the local kids sing the national anthem. Some great pictures in the link at the end:
PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen finished their AHL era Sunday as a lame-duck team with only 8 players remaining on the roster from Opening Night, and shut out over the final 126 minutes, 24 seconds at Carver Arena.
Yet hockey fans in Peoria went down fighting.
"One minute remaining in Peoria Rivermen hockey," longtime public address announcer B.J. Stone signaled as the clock wound down on a 3-0 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals.
And with that, the 4,302 in attendance rose and gave their team an ovation to the final horn.
They were still standing two hours and 27 minutes after the game had ended -- and with it Peoria's AHL era, as well as possibly its pro hockey era, after the Blues sale of the Rivermen to the Vancouver Canucks.
Long lines of fans waited to get onto the ice to greet the players, get autographs, take pictures, say goodbye to a franchise that operated here continuously for 31 years.
"That standing ovation was amazing, it says everything about these fans and Peoria," Rivermen veteran star T.J. Hensick said. "We wanted to give them so much more. They deserved so much more. And yet they still came down here, stood behind us to the end and beyond.
"This weekend was about these fans, and we knew that. This is an AHL city, and it deserves the pro game at this level."
Fans lugged jerseys, sticks, hats -- even a garbage can lid -- through the line as players and coaches sat at tables on the ice.
"My father collected these programs and I was 1 when all this started," said Jeremy Sherman, clutching game programs from the team going back to 1982. Earlier in the night, he stood behind the goal in Sect. 19 and took pictures of the championship banners and retired numbers hanging on the Carver Arena walls.
Everywhere, fans wore Rivermen game jerseys, a cross-section of old IHL, ECHL and AHL eras on display.
They held up signs, like "We will miss you Rivermen" and "Puck you Stillman" and, at one point, a collaborative effort in which several fans, each holding a single letter, spelled out "Stillman Sucks." The latter was in reference to Blues owner Tom Stillman, who sold the Peoria team.
http://blogs.pjstar.com/eye/2013/04/22/peoria-rivermen-finale-vs-the-milwaukee-admirals/
