Ice Bears Downed by Rivermen, 4-1
SPHL Knoxville Ice Bears

Ice Bears Downed by Rivermen, 4-1

Published on March 21, 2026 under SPHL (SPHL)
Knoxville Ice Bears News Release


Knoxville couldn't take advantage of some offensive opportunities early and failed to recover from a second period deficit as the Ice Bears fell to the Peoria Rivermen 4-1 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Saturday night.

Chances were limited both ways through the first period with neither team able to take advantage of their best looks. JM Piotrowski fanned on a backdoor pass for Peoria and Troy Button shut down a Rivermen two-on-one by blocking a crossing pass in the slot before Jarret Kup got in the way of the ensuing shot off the rebound.

Knoxville's forecheck nearly gave the Ice Bears the lead late in the period. Frankie Ireland stole the puck in the slot and slipped it to Kup, but Kup's wrist shot hit the short side post. Jared Westcott managed to get the rebound from the corner back between the circles, but Ireland's follow up chance sailed wide.

Jordan Ersnt scored from the left point 3:52 into the second to open the scoring for Peoria. Trenton Heyde dumped the puck up the left wing and it hit linesman Jeffrey Marcinek along the wall. The puck deflected back to the top of the circle and stayed in the zone where Heyde collected the puck, carried it to an empty slot and beat Connor Green top shelf to give Peoria a 2-0 lead at the second intermission.

Brayden Barker knocked a puck into the net out of the air at 5:26 of the third to make it 3-0.

Kyle Soper got Knoxville on the board with a shot from the left wall at 8:59.

Jared Westcott was awarded a penalty shot with a minute and a half remaining for a chance to cut the deficit to one, but Jack Bostedt stopped the attempt with a glove save.

Griffin Fox scored on an empty net with 1:20 remaining to cap off the scoring. Green made 19 saves. Bostedt made 31 stops for the Rivermen.

Knoxville heads to Fayetteville to take on the Marksmen Sunday afternoon. Peoria is in Evansville Friday night.

Check out the Knoxville Ice Bears Statistics

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