PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen are on a bus to Huntsville for a set of road games this weekend.
While they are focused on the road ahead in the SPHL race, the Rivermen took some time this week to look back at an incident that left them in the game's national spotlight.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the Columbus Cottonmouths team bus crash in Morton. The bus, just a few minutes from arriving in Peoria to face the Rivermen for a pair of SPHL games last season, missed a bend on I-74 and left the highway.
"I got a phone call from (SPHL president) Jim Combs telling me the bus had crashed, and that he had to board a plane and come to Peoria," Rivermen head coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. "I froze, mentally, for a second, wasn't sure what he had just said. Then I understood, and it was a horrible feeling. We just wanted to get to those guys and help them."
The Columbus players were transported to a hospital. Two players had to be cut free from the overturned bus. Goaltender Brandon Jaeger needed surgery and did not play again.
An Illinois state police officer at the scene kept the Rivermen updated on the situation.
The Rivermen, Cottonmouths, SPHL and the hockey community across two countries joined together and made it their mission to assist.
"We had people from all over the country calling, from the ECHL, the AHL, the Federal Hockey League, everywhere, wanting to know how they could help," Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers said. "They offered players for Columbus to use, and several guys came out of retirement and traveled here to play for them."
Everywhere, there was the hand of fate. Columbus winger Keegan Bruce, the son of Rivermen Hall of Famer David Bruce, was on that bus. It was his birthday. And there he was, on his birthday, in the same Peoria hospital in which he was born.
When Rogers got to the hospital, he was stunned. "They had six guys who could play a game," he said. "Everyone else was on crutches, or in a sling, or had a concussion or cuts. Everything they owned was on the bus, and the bus was an accident investigation scene so they couldn't even get their items. But no one lost their life.
"We bought them cellphones. Underwear. Socks. They looked like they were in shock, which is what you would expect. We made sure they were fed, and we handled calls from their families, you can imagine how frantic some of those were, so we assisted in getting anyone here who wanted to get here."
The crash happened on Thursday afternoon. Rogers and the league immediately canceled the Friday game in Carver Arena. The Saturday game was near a sellout in advance with Cubs star Ben Zobrist scheduled to appear.
"Columbus coach Jerome Bechard said his team wanted to play, would play that Saturday game if we could help him get players," Rogers said. "It was important to us here. And it was important for the league to get those guys back on the ice."
And what a night it was. A Columbus team, literally survivors patched together in 36 hours, built a lead and nearly upset the Rivermen.
Peoria rallied to win it in sudden-death overtime in front of the largest crowd in five years. The injured Columbus players watched from the grandstand. The first responders were honored on the ice.
Zobrist addressed the Peoria team after the game in its locker room. Then he approached the walking wounded Columbus players and shook their hands, posed for pictures with them and praised them for their courage.
"You play and you coach for nights like that," Trudel said. "In many ways, it was the greatest night of my coaching career. There was so much emotion on all sides. So much drama in the game itself. So much bravery by those Columbus players and composure by ours -- it wasn't easy for our team to play that game, either. The images of that night are still raw.
"To me, from a disaster, emerged one of the great nights for Peoria hockey, for the league."
Dave Eminian covers the Rivermen for the Journal Star. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Check out his videos on Youtube.com/pjstarcom and news items on Twitter @icetimecleve.