Rivermen announce 2009-10 schedule

PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen will open the 2009-10 American Hockey League season with five consecutive home games, and play West Division rivals Chicago, Rockford and Milwaukee 10 times each.

A look at the schedule, released Thursday, showed the Rivermen will be faced with a big challenge on the ice, and in the business office, with what appears to be a very difficult distribution of games.

The Rivermen play seven of their first eight games at home, and 14 of their first 22—that’s all of October and November —in Carver Arena. That gives the team a great chance for a fast start, and to settle into roles before it has to travel.

But those first two months are traditionally difficult drawing periods at the box office, and teams try to jockey in the scheduling process to avoid them.

The Rivermen, who saw an attendance decline last season in part because of one of the poorest schedules in their history, had 11 October-November home games in 2008-09.

In 2009-10, the team will play at home 12 times on Saturdays, 10 on Fridays and 7 on Sundays, a total of just one weekend date fewer than it had last season.

Peoria’s standard game times at Carver Arena will again be 7:05 p.m. for games Monday-Saturday. Sunday games will be mostly 3:05 p.m. starts, with some at 5:05 p.m.

The 80-game schedule includes a season-starting homestand unprecedented in length in Peoria’s 28-year franchise history. The Rivermen host Grand Rapids on Opening Night on Saturday, Oct. 3.

The follow up at Carver Arena with Rockford on Oct. 4, then Milwaukee on Oct. 9 and 14, and Hamilton on Oct. 16.

They have another big homestand—an 11-game stretch in which they play nine times at home—from Feb. 12 through March 6. That represents an opportunity for the team to position itself on solid footing for the March stretch run.

The Rivermen have a season-high seven-game road trip from March 7-19, during which they’ll play five times in Texas.

They have a seven-game, 10-day stretch from Feb. 19-28, and play five games in eight days from March 21-28.

Peoria closes it’s regular-season with four if its final five games on the road—two games each at traditional powers Milwaukee and Manitoba.

The craziest part of the schedule? The Rivermen play at Toronto on Dec. 30, then must either bus 12 hours, or fly into Chicago and bus to Peoria, to host Chicago the next night for a New Year’s Eve game in Carver Arena.

Peoria plays 54 of its 80 games within the West, and the remainder against the North Division. Rochester is the only North foe the Rivermen do not face.

North power Grand Rapids is on the schedule eight times. West rival Chicago does not appear at Carver Arena until New Year’s Eve. Rockford comes in three times in October.

Peoria’s first visit from the Dallas Stars’ new farm club in Austin, Texas, is on Nov. 11 at Carver. The former Quad City Flames franchise—now Abbotsford, British Columbia—visits for the first time on Nov. 13.

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