The Quad City Mallards came close to giving away a three-goal lead to the Bloomington Blaze, but did just enough to escape with a 5-3 victory.

Quad City led by three goals at one point and ended with the victory. The largest advantage in the game came when the Mallards' Matt Boyd's scored short handed at 7:18 in the second period to put Quad City up 3-0.

Michael Monfredo had two goals to lead the Mallards to victory. Monfredo found the back of the net 17:59 into the first period to make the score 2-0 Quad City and again while 19:46 into the third to make the score 5-3 Quad City.

Quad City relied on a core group of players for most of its offense, as Mickey Lang, Anthony Perdicaro and Tyler Amburgey took 14 of the team's 27 shots. The defensemen of the Mallards were also effective in Bloomington's zone, and came away with three goals.

Quad City also got a goal from Darren McMillan as well. In addition, Quad City received assists from Bob Preece, Jason Kostadine, Obi Aduba, Mike Stinziani, Matt Duffy, and Jason Dixon, who contributed one a piece.

The Blaze were forced to rely heavily on their penalty kill unit throughout the game, as they racked up 17 penalty minutes. Bloomington put 39 shots on net during the contest, more than the 23.9 it averages per game.

The Blaze were helped by Sean OConnor, who had one goal. OConnor scored 13:19 into the second period to make the score 3-2 Quad City. Leo Thomas picked up the assist. Steve Makway also scored for Bloomington. Other players who recorded assists for Bloomington were Leland Fidler, Nicolas Rioux, Kyle Bochek, Nicklas Lindberg, and Jon Booras, who each chipped in one.

John Murray made 36 saves for Quad City on 39 shots. The Mallards totaled 15 minutes in penalty time with five minors and one major and went 1-for-5 on the power play. Ross MacKinnon rejected 22 shots on goal for Bloomington. The Blaze registered one goal on four power play opportunities.