During practice at Swonder Ice Arena two days before Game One of the Southern Professional Hockey League President’s Cup Finals, the Evansville Thunderbolts were, in the words of Head Coach Jeff Bes, “dialed in.”
The description has fit the Thunderbolts throughout the 2025-26 playoffs. Coming in as the fourth seed, the Thunderbolts won their first-round series against the Pensacola (Florida) Ice Flyers and semifinals against the Roanoke (Virginia) Rail Yard Dawgs. Next, they face the top-seeded Peoria (Illinois) Rivermen in a best-of-five series starting April 30. It’s a battle of the last two President’s Cup champions: Evansville hoisted its first-ever trophy last April, a year after Peoria captured the title.
Games One and Two are this week in Peoria. Game Three and, if necessary, Game Four are May 6-7 at Evansville’s Ford Center. A deciding Game Five, again if necessary, moves back to Peoria’s home ice May 9.
“We are excited about the opportunity to get back (to the finals),” Bes says. “Our guys have worked all season to defend the Cup. We’ve got a great group of guys who had the experience and are teaching our younger guys. There’s nothing better than playing hockey when the sun is shining (in the spring).”
About that experience — 10 players on the Thunderbolts’ current roster were in uniform a year ago when Evansville beat the Knoxville (Tennessee) Ice Bears for the title. Bes, in his seventh season with the club, has worked to establish a culture of lasting success. “They are like an extension of my arm, setting the standard the way we want,” he says of the returning players. “It’s about hard work, being good in the community, and being professional.”
Another factor in Evansville’s favor during the playoffs has been a hot goaltender. Kristian Stead has been, in Bes’ words, “like a wall” in the two previous series. In his fifth pro hockey season and first with the Thunderbolts, the British Columbia, Canada, native earned all-SPHL Second Team honors. In the decisive fourth game in the semifinals, Stead stopped 32 of Roanoke’s 33 shots on goal.
Left wingers Myles Abbate, a Norwell, Massachusetts, native who found the net three times in the Roanoke series, and Isaac Chapman from Nova Scotia, Canada, who scored once in the semis, say the Bolts are eager for the finals to start — the culmination of a long season and the goal of defending a championship.
“It’s obviously pretty cool, getting to experience it last year,” Chapman says. “Going into this year, I felt we were prepared and ready to go. It’s exciting.”
The Bolts captured last season’s President’s Cup after entering the playoffs as the seventh seed. Returning players from that squad set a goal to repeat the title; they are now positioned to do so. Captain Matthew Hobbs told Evansville Living in the January/February issue that the team’s winning environment is a result of its tight-knit culture. Recalling the end of the 2024-25 season, “I can almost guarantee you we had the tightest locker room when it came to camaraderie and playing for the guy beside you,” Hobbs told Evansville Living. “That’s where, in the playoffs, you see what teams have more success.” (The Ontario, Canada, native also half-joked to Evansville Living that entering the season as the defending champions was a great motivation “because it was such a fun experience that I never want to experience losing ever again.”)
Evansville finished its series with Roanoke on April 23, while Peoria’s semifinal series with Knoxville went its full five games. The Rivermen won the deciding game on April 26, so the Thunderbolts had three additional days of rest. The Bolts and Rivermen are well-acquainted: They faced off 14 times during the regular season and have a long heated rivalry. Evansville won the season series 8-6, although Peoria prevailed in the last two matchups. Home ice was a factor: Evansville was 6-1 vs. the Rivermen at the Ford Center and 2-5 at Carver Arena inside the Peoria Civic Center.
“There’s no secret,” Bes says of the two teams. “We know what each other’s gonna do. We’ve done the same systems, played the same way against each other for the past seven years that I’ve been here. So it’s a matter of the guys going out there and executing. It’s gonna be a matter of being physical. It’s gonna be a matter of who wants it more at the end of the day.”
Bes expects a physical series between familiar foes, and he says keeping penalty minutes to a minimum will be important for the Bolts as they seek back-to-back President’s Cup championships.
“Discipline has been a catch phrase and a key word for us,” he says. “You’ve got to play hard, play on that edge, but you can’t let your emotion take over.”
WHEN YOU GO
Game Three of the SPHL President’s Cup Finals is set for 7 p.m. May 6 at Ford Center, with the puck dropping for Game Four, if necessary, at 7 p.m. May 7. Tickets through Ticketmaster start at $31.15, but at the Ford Center box office, they are available for $21 in the goal zone, and $28 for center ice, and fans under 25 can get in for $15. Can’t make it to the finals? Game One will be live-streamed via FloHockey and available to watch on Prime Video and Fubo in the U.S., Fubo and Bell Fibe TV in Canada, and on FloHockey’s YouTube channel.
