What the Peoria Rivermen said after a Game 3 loss to Knoxville in SPHL semifinals

The Peoria Rivermen put themselves in a bad position Thursday, and now the SPHL's No. 1 playoff seed has its back to the wall. The Rivermen gave up four unanswered goals to start the game, rallied to get two back, and fell short, 4-2, to No.

7 Knoxville in Game 3 of the SPHL Semifinals before 3,863 at Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Knoxville leads the best-of-5 series, 2-1, and can eliminate the Rivermen on Friday in Game 4 in Tennessee. No.

4 seed Evansville eliminated No. 3 Roanoke on Thursday night in the other semifinal, and awaits the winner of the Peoria-Knoxville series in the President's Cup Finals. The Rivermen put SPHL Goaltender of the Year Jack Bostedt in the net for his first postseason appearance.

They got goals from gritty little checking line center Matt Wiesner and captain Alec Baer 23 seconds apart in the final two minutes of the second period. They got a terrific effort game from big veteran center JM Piotrowski. That was about it.