PEORIA — It was four straight games against each other in a span of 14 days for the Peoria Rivermen and Pee Dee IceCats on Friday at Carver Arena.
And that was one game and one day too many.
To little surprise, the Rivermen and Cats clashed in a third-period brawl that resulted in eight player ejections.
And to even less surprise, the Rivermen hammered expansion Pee Dee, 7-2, in an SPHL game before 4,191.
Connor Szmul and Will Redick each scored two goals, Mike McChesney notched the game-winner and Carson Jones had three assists as the Rivermen improved to 3-1-1 and fifth place.
Peoria drove Pee Dee goaltender Parker Rutherford out of the net with five goals on 12 shots in the first 34 minutes.
The Rivermen penalty kill erased five more challenges and remained at 100% for the season on 23 of 23.
What happened at 11:02?
The Rivermen took out a Pee Dee player in the left corner and a flurry of counter-retaliations escalated into 10 fighting penalties and nine game misconducts, including two ejections to Peoria's Daniel Chartrand.
Rivermen players Chartrand, Braydon Barker, Kylar Fenton and Alfred Rotiroti were ejected.
Pee Dee players Cole Bishop, Danil Federov, Kaydn Fennell and Vad...