The Quad City Mallards tried to dig themselves out of a two-goal hole, but the Bloomington Blaze held on for a 3-2 victory.

Bloomington made the score 3-1 on a goal by Tyler Gron at 12:07 in the third period, and Quad City got as close as 3-2 when Mike Hellyer scored 19:45 into the third period.

Gron had two goals to lead the Blaze to victory.

Kyle Bocheck also scored for Bloomington. Other players who recorded assists for Bloomington were Jon Booras, who had two and Tysen Dowzak, Steve Makway, Travis Granbois, and Matthew Larke, who each chipped in one.

The Mallards forced their penalty killing units to work especially hard during the game, picking up six minors and one major for 17 minutes in penalty time. Quad City surpassed its season average of 15.0 penalty minutes per game.

Quad City also got a goal from Mickey Lang as well. More assists for Quad City came via Matt Duffy, who had two and Obi Aduba and Mike Stinziani, who contributed one a piece.

Bloomington's Pier-Olivier Pelletier stopped 24 shots out of the 26 that he faced. The Blaze totaled 28 minutes in penalty time with four minors and two majors and went 1-for-4 on the power play. Bloomington ran into serious disciplinary problems during the contest, and Sebastien Trudeau was ejected from the game. Neil Conway made 21 saves for the Mallards on 24 shots. Quad City registered one goal on three power play opportunities.