Peoria Rivermen get their first win, and a new name as the Illinois Flying Carp

PEORIA — Peoria Rivermen hockey fans had best get hooked on the Illinois Flying Carp, because that's the team they will be rooting for next March.

The Rivermen got two goals from Tyler Barrow — including the game-winner — for their first victory of the 2022-23 season as defending champions of the Southern Professional Hockey League on Friday, landing a big one in the win column with a 5-3 decision over the Evansville Thunderbolts before 2,372 at Carver Arena.

Off the ice, the 41-year franchise delivered another first, announcing the first rebranding event of their history, a March 10 game in Carver Arena.

"It's something a lot of teams are trying in our league, and other minor league sports," Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers said. "Huntsville has done rebranding nights, Fayetteville and some other places.

"We wanted to try it, have a fun night where we used a new name and special logo design and colors that represented something unique to our area."

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And the Illinois Flying Carp were born. The logo features a menacing looking carp in light blue colors, above the word "Illinois" and script lettering "Flying Carp", with marine green trim.

"I like to fish," Rivermen defenseman Zach Wilkie said, looking at the logo. "I haven't been on the Illinois River yet, though. I know all about how aggressive they are. I'd like to get one. And that logo is pretty sick."

The logo was designed by Tyler Earls, outside Nashville, Tenn. He's done rebranding night logos for other teams, and took the Rivermen through a two-month process for theirs.

"We came up with about 10 different themes, names, for our rebrand and whittled the list down to three," Rogers said. "Then we turned over those three candidates to Tyler and let him choose which one he wanted to design. The two runners-up concepts were Penicillin (mass production development was born at what was then the Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria), and the Cornshuckers."

The Rivermen will play as the Flying Carp on March 10, then return to their traditional identity. They'll roll out an Illinois Flying Carp merchandise line, from pucks to ballcaps and jerseys and more.

Anyone gone fishing?

Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel took a look at the Flying Carp logo after Friday's win.

"Hey, the Toledo Walleye have the No. 1-selling jersey in the ECHL," Trudel said. "I don't fish. But it's a pretty sick-looking logo, and it'll be a fun night."

Said Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman: "People from around here know all about flying carp. Those things are one of those unique Peoria stories. You get your bait in the water and they get after it and you.

"I just hope we hit as hard as they do."

One for the win column

The Rivermen reached the win column for the first time this season after a high-scoring second period. They got big games from defenseman Zach Wilkie and Hank Sorensen, the latter notching three assists in his debut.

They saw rookie winger Tyler Barrow score two goals, continuing to show some serious offensive presence.

"I was glad to get those goals, but I didn't play as well as I want to," Barrow said. "Offense has always been my strength, but I know I have to improve defensively."

Goaltender Ben Churchfield made his first Rivermen start in the net and earned a victory. He took a shot off his facemask and saw two shots strike the posts but held the team through a scoreless first period.

It was a strange sequence after that, the Rivermen building leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the second period. They out-shot Evansville 17-4 in a 20-minute stretch from midway in the first period to midway in the second period.

Then they saw the Thunderbolts tie the game on three consecutive shots -- the only three shots they managed in the entire second period and first 67 seconds of the third period.

Barrow, who scored a second-period goal for a 3-1 lead, got Peoria back on track with the game-winner at 4:56 of the third. He took Joe Drapluk's feed from behind the left side of the net and tucked it from the slot past goaltender Zane Steeves' glove and inside the right post.

JM Piotrowski added an empty-net goal with 7 seconds left.

"We have a lot of guys coming into their games," Wilkie said. "Getting this first win takes a little bit of pressure off. We made some progress, it's a start."

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Things I liked

• Former Macon captain Joe Drapluk had a goal and two assists for the Rivermen and his presence was felt all over the ice.

• The team reacted and drew inspiration from defenseman Zach Wilkie, who plays with a lot of emotion.

• Rivermen winger Mitch McPherson immediately went after veteran Swede Fredrik Wink when the latter blasted top Peoria center Alec Baer from behind.

• Bluecollar center Kasey Kulczycki got to the net and broke a scoreless tie 2:34 into the second period.

• Longtime Rivermen fan Adam Masso was able to introduce his traditional post-game victory dance in the locker room to a new group of players and staff. Trudel and new athletic trainer Allison Beazley joined the dance circle.

• Ever-focused, Trudel was already breaking down the analytics after the game in his office, and said: "A nice night and a nice win, but I still thought we played just one period and got away with it. We still have guys who are missing in action. I think we need a little bit more from our leadership group."

River Readings

The Rivermen signed 5-foot-6, 165-pounder Joe Strada and put him in the lineup. The scrappy little left wing played 39 games in the SPHL last season for Vermilion County, Knoxville and Pensacola. … Evansville right wing Fredrik Wink drew a boarding penalty in the first period for taking out Rivermen defenseman Zach Wilkie. Then, seven minutes later, Wink blasted Rivermen center Alec Baer — the league's MVP last season — from behind into the boards. Wink was assessed a major checking from behind penalty and ejected on a match penalty call. Peoria's Mitch McPherson pounded him in retaliation, and Evansville somehow came out of the sequence on a power play. … Rivermen winger Tyler Barrow had a nameplate on his jersey that read: Barrows. After scoring two goals with it, maybe he should keep it that way. " … Rivermen forwards Austin Morgan and Brendan Soucie and defenseman Braydon Barker were healthy scratches. … Former Rivermen winger Mathieu Cloutier scored a second-period goal for Evansville. … The Rivermen now are 41-8-7 all-time against Evansville.

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Rivermen get first win, will rebrand as Flying Carp for game