Peoria Rivermen beat Quad City with rookie driven by words written on his hockey stick

PEORIA — The proof was in the putting for Peoria Rivermen rookie winger Tyler Barrow on Friday against Quad City.

He put a puck in the net.

He put Quad City center Connor Fries into the bench.

And he helped put the Rivermen in the win column with a 3-0 decision over the rival Storm before 2,989 at Carver Arena.

With that, the Rivermen moved up into fourth place in the SPHL standings, just three points out of first. Three of the SPHL's top four teams are from the north — Peoria, Quad City and Evansville.

Barrow is on the rise, too, as he learns to play the game in all three zones. His offensive talent is already there, and it has him leading the defending champions with six goals in nine games.

"The pro level, this league, is all about the next play," Barrow said. "You have to leave things behind you and anticipate what is coming next, and I can think like that."

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'Prove People Wrong'

His internal drive is on display on his stick, where he writes "PPW," an acronym for "Prove People Wrong."

He's 5-foot-9, 175 and played the last four seasons at NCAA Division-III Wilkes University.

That wasn't good enough when he went to camp with ECHL Adirondack, and later, when he came down to camp with SPHL Fayetteville.

Fayetteville traded him to Peoria for future considerations. It has proven to be a great move for both the team and the player.

"I was in Fayetteville for two days, and they told me they had too many top players," said Barrow, fire in his eyes as he told the story. "I drove down there from Adirondack and they didn't want me. So I was happy to come to Peoria."

Barrow sat out the middle game of the Rivermen three-games, three-nights road trip last week, which the team swept.

Coach Jean-Guy Trudel wanted more from his promising rookie in the defensive zone.

"He came back in the next game and flew, never pouted. That's a man," said Trudel, after the rookie had a four-point game in his return to the lineup at Huntsville. "I loved the reaction from Barrow after I sat him out in the second game. He came back and was tremendous. You put a guy in a tough situation and see how he reacts to it."

Said Barrow: "It was my first trip on that sleeper bus, and I think I slept maybe 30 minutes before the first game, I just had no legs. So Jean-Guy told me before the second game, 'You're out tonight.'

"Well I'm the type of guy who responds to that. It's why I have "PPW" on my stick."

More: Box Score: Rivermen 3, Quad City 0Stats: Rivermen 3, Quad City 0

Growing up Islanders

Barrow grew up in Long Island, N.Y., and was raised an Islanders fan.

"I loved watching Jason Blake," said Barrow, of the undersized former Islanders left wing who played 901 NHL games. "He was a lot like me, same size and a skill player, and I related to him."

He also was raised on hockey, his father, Al, sending him onto the ice at age 3. Al and Christina Barrow have four boys — Spencer, Tyler, Evan and Austin — and they all played hockey.

"We were always in the driveway playing hockey," Barrow said of his brothers. "I was always on a hockey path."

He scored 16 goals in 19 games for the Long Island Gulls in 2015-16, an 18-under elite junior program — one of the best in North America — in the Atlantic Youth Hockey League.

He went on to play in 2016-17 for the Charlotte Rush elite class (18 goals in 41 games) in the U.S. Premier Hockey League. He played for Charlotte's premier class team a season later (18 goals in 36 games).

Then it was off to Wilkes University for four seasons, where he netted 52 goals and added 80 assists in 88 career games.

He turned pro last spring and joined Fayetteville, playing three games and scoring his first pro goal. The Marksmen put him on their 13-man protected rights list over the summer, then in the fall sent him to Peoria.

He's playing here with linemates Joe Drapluk and Cayden Cahill.

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How Barrow was big in 3-0

The Rivermen beat Quad City in an intense game Friday, 3-0.

Peoria rolled to a 17-4 shooting lead in the first period, but settled for a scoreless frame as veteran goaltender Eric Levine dueled Quad City counterpart Bailey Brkin in the nets.

The Rivermen finally got to Brkin when winger Jordan Ernst knocked a shot from the left side of the crease between the goaltender's pads for a 1-0 lead at 13:50 of the second period.

It held up as the game-winner.

Barrow, meanwhile, was in the corner to Levine's glove side in the first period when, with the puck already 75 feet up the ice, he took a hit into the boards from former Rivermen center Connor Fries.

Barrow needed help getting off the ice, hunched over with what appeared to be a left arm injury. But he returned in the second period and, sure enough, found Fries skating past the Rivermen bench about six minutes in.

Barrow caught him at a perfect angle and air-mailed him over the boards and into the Peoria bench.

Then, at 17:47 of the second period, Barrow took pressure off his team by skating through the length of the ice, weaving through three Quad City defenders in the neutral zone, then on down the slot to send a wrister past Brkin on the fly for 2-0.

"I circled behind our net and came out, got up the ice and saw their D-man had a terrible gap," Barrow said. "I went right through it and kept on going, picked up speed."

That contentious second period saw Peoria captain Alec Hagaman pound Filip Vergili after the latter delivered an elbow. Vergili was ejected with a major elbowing penalty, plus a fight penalty. Hagaman was tossed for instigating, fighting and an aggressor game misconduct.

The Rivermen emerged from that with a three-minute, no-limit power play, on which they didn't score.

Peoria's Mitch McPherson fought Dillon Fournier in that second period as well, skating to the box afterward while gesturing as if to dust off his hands.

Quad City never recovered, and the Rivermen added on a third-period power play goal on a terrific one-timer from the left circle by Alec Baer into the top right corner.

"I wasn't chasing around the ice looking for (Fries) after that hit he put on me," Barrow said. "I just kept playing. And then there he was, at the perfect angle. I believe in the hockey gods."

The Rivermen didn't chase, either, after a first period in which they got nothing on the scoreboard after dominating.

As Barrow did, though, they just went on to the next play.

River Readings

Rivermen goaltender Eric Levine's shutout was the 15th of his SPHL career, an ongoing league record. … Levine had gone four straight games without a win (1 loss, 3 no-decisions). … Rivermen goaltender Ben Churchfield was named SPHL Player of the Week ahead of the game, and was placed on 21-day IR with a sore back. … The Rivermen signed rookie goaltender Josh Boyko. He's played four games for ECHL Maine this season (3.29 goals-against, .901 saves rate). … The Rivermen out-shot Quad City 17-4 in the first period, the lowest single-period shooting output by the Storm this season. … The Rivermen finished their two-game homestand wearing special cartoon character Peanuts jerseys, and auctioned them after the game. … Peoria moves on to Quad City for a rematch Saturday.

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 hockey: Rookie driven by words on his stick