MOLINE - Mascot Mo Mallard can come home. The Quad Cities' newest hockey team was introduced with a familiar old name on Tuesday at the i wireless Center.

Enlisting Doc Brown's flux capacitor-driven DeLorean Time Machine to hammer home the theme, Chris Lencheski and Eric Galler - the pair of out-of-town professionals who together form QCHT, LLC - announced "Quack to the Future'' to an estimated 150 avid Quad City puck fans at an introductory news conference at the i wireless Center.

With Lencheski as principal owner, the duo will field the new Quad-City Mallards in the International Hockey League starting in October. The Mallards become the IHL's seventh team.

Scott Mullen, the i wireless Center executive director, is confident this marketing savvy duo of Lencheski and Galler has the creative energy to get the job done.

Lencheski said his group will attempt to lure back casual fans with friendly promotions, building-aided discounts on concessions and parking, and innovative ideas such as allowing a select group of ticket-holders access to the team in the locker room for up to a half-hour until faceoff.

Under counsel of consultant Steve Ryan, a former president of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, Lencheski said he and Galler opted for the IHL because its business model is based on an affordable Midwest-based travel budget and a home schedule heavy on weekend dates.

The new owners will be in Fort Wayne, Ind., today to begin working on the schedule.

Galler said the hiring of a general manager and coach could be imminent and said the group shortly will begin putting together a sales and marketing team.

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