Nick Prockow lifted the Peoria Rivermen to a 5-1 victory with a hat trick against the Bloomington Thunder.

The game was close after the first frame, but Peoria banged in three goals during the second period to put the victory out of reach for Bloomington.

The Rivermen were led by goalie Eric Levine, who finished with 27 saves while allowing one goal. The solid play of Levine will be reflected in his goals against average, which pre-game was 3.08.

Peoria was often in penalty trouble, totaling 11 minors and seven majors for 77 minutes in penalty time. The total exceeded the 19.0 minutes per game the Rivermen had been spending in the box. Peoria excelled on the penalty kill, not giving up a single goal in seven chances. By firing 41 shots on goal, the Rivermen exceeded the 28.1 shots they average per game this year.

Peoria also had goals scored by Alexandre Mentink and Charlie Carkin, who scored one goal each. Other players who recorded assists for Peoria were Taylor Larsen, Matt Viola, and Nick Wheeler, who contributed one a piece and Joe Schiller, Parker Stanfield, and Garrett Vermeersch, who each chipped in two.

The Thunder forced their penalty killing units to work especially hard during the game, picking up 13 minors and seven majors for 91 minutes in penalty time. Bloomington surpassed its season average of 34.0 penalty minutes per game.

The Thunder were led by Sy Nutkevitch, who dished out one assist.

Peoria registered three goals on 11 power play opportunities. Team's Jarrett Rush and Stanfield were slapped with misconducts and ejected from the game. Max Strang made 36 saves for Bloomington on 41 shots. For the Thunder, Ron Cramer and Daniel Barczuk were ejected from the contest.