Peoria, IL – – It was 2-2 after 50 minutes of play in Peoria on Saturday night. The Quad Cities Storm had stolen some momentum in the second period from the Rivermen. Then the wheels came off.
After a long delay to repair a “loose net” on the visitors end, the Rivermen came out hustling. 
Ben Blasko backhanded a pass into the slot where a wide-open Joe Kalisz delivered a one-timer top-shelf to break the tie. The 3,888 fans in attendance erupted. Peoria would go on to score twice more as Jake Hamiton, on the Power Play, and Alec Hagaman both found the five-hole.
Vincent Beaudry won a battle in the corner and found Tommy Tsicos all alone in the slot. His shot beat Peoria goaltender Storm Phaneuf at 5:40 of the first period. It was the first goal for the weekend for the Storm and staked them to a 1-0 lead.
Overall, Peoria dominated play in the first period, though. They were helped by a pair of Quad Cities penalties and even though the Storm entered the night with the second best penalty kill unit in the league, Pijus Rulevicius had other ideas.
Rulevicius swarmed Quad Cities goaltender Peter Di Salvo, following a shot by Dean Yakura, to even up the score at 1-each at 12:29 of the first period.
Di Salvo did get a piece of Rulevicius shot at 18:37 during a second power play, but not enough and the puck bounced into the net to pull the Rivermen ahead 2-1.
Phanuef, in his first action after returning from an ECHL call-up, took home his seventh win on the season, stopping 17 of 19 shots. Di Salvo stopped 24 of 29 shots.
Quad Cities did not score on the power play in four opportunities while Peoria went 3-for-5 with the man-advantage.
Notes:Â During the second period, the Rivermen inducted longtime announcer Norm Ulrich into the Rivermen Hall of Fame, posthumously…Also inducted was Butch Kaebel.
Butch played for Peoria at the end of the IHL era and was a stalwart of early ECHL teams…Kaebel is also from the Peoria area…The vaunted Quad Cities Penalty Kill unit is in free fall, having given up five power play goals this weekend…Blasko had three assists on the night.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN.
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