Rivermen Travel to Evansville and Roanoke as Hottest Team in SPHL
SPHL Peoria Rivermen

Rivermen Travel to Evansville and Roanoke as Hottest Team in SPHL

Published on February 4, 2026 under SPHL (SPHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release


PEORIA, IL - The Peoria Rivermen (28-8-1) are set to take on the Evansville Thunderbolts (17-13-6) on Wednesday night and the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs (19-15-3) this Friday and Saturday night on the road. Peoria has won 12 straight games and is one of the hottest teams in all of Professional hockey.

THE DETAILS

The Rivermen will hit the road to Evansville, Indiana, on Wednesday night for a mid-week battle with the Thunderbolts on February 4; the face-off is set for 7:00 pm CT. The contest will be the second meeting between the two teams in 2026. After that, the Rivermen will head over to Roanoke, Virginia, for a two-game weekend on Friday and Saturday night against the Rail Yard Dawgs. Face-off for those two games is set for 7:05 pm ET.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Rivermen are currently on a 12-game winning streak, tied for the second-longest in league history. Furthermore, the Rivermen are 18-0-1 in their last 19 games, which is the second-longest point streak in SPHL history. Peoria, with three more wins, can set a new SPHL winning streak record at 15 games, beating the previous high of 14 held by the 2015-16 Peoria Rivermen, and at the same time tie the league's point-streak record at 22 consecutive games with at least a point (held by the 2014 Pensacola Ice Flyers).

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Rivermen are fresh off a road sweep of the Huntsville Havoc last weekend. Peoria beat Huntsville 2-1 in a shootout on Friday night before blanking the Havoc 1-0 on Saturday night. Goaltender Nick Latinovich made 35 saves to record his league-leading fourth shutout of the year on Saturday night, while Griffen Fox notched the shootout winner in his first game back from an ECHL call-up on Friday.

WHO'S HOT

Both Rivermen goaltenders Nick Latinovich and Connor McAnanama have been lights out for the Rivermen as of late. McAnanama allowed just a single goal while making 39 saves in his first true road test with the Rivermen and enabled Peoria to come away with a shoot-out victory. Meanwhile, Nick Latinovich made 35 saves to shutout the Huntsville Havoc on Saturday. Latinovich has won each of his last 10 starts. McAnanama has won his first three starts.

SCOUTING THE THUNDERBOLTS AND THE RAIL YARD DAWGS

The Evansville Thunderbolts are 4-3-3 in their last 10 games coming into February and are most recently coming off a weekend split with the Birmingham Bulls. Forward Evan Miller has been one of the key offensive bright spots for the Thunderbolts in recent weeks, with goals in each of his last two games. Evansville currently sits in fifth place in the SPHL standings, one point behind the fourth-place Rail Yard Dawgs.

Roanoke has gone 4-6-0 in its last 10 games and is looking for consistency heading into February. The last two weekends have seen the Dawgs post back-to-back splits with Roanoke dropping the Friday night game before rallying on Saturday. Forward Joseph Widmar leads the Dawgs up front with 48 points on the year (19 goals, 29 assists), which leads the SPHL. Roanoke sits in fourth place in the SPHL standings, five points behind the third-place Havoc.

Check out the Peoria Rivermen Statistics

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